Is Alabama basketball in line for a Roman-worthy fall?

All good things eventually come to an end. Don’t believe me? Just ask Google to define “Civis Romanus sum.”

If you were a Roman citizen at the height of the Roman Empire, 2,000 years ago, legend has it that you could walk across the face of the known world, free of the fear of molestation. That illustrated both the power and protection afforded to Roman citizens and also highlighted how their status ensured safety and retribution against any harm.

Those were the days.

There isn’t quite a straight line to be drawn between the days of Caesar and Constantinople to the present-day dealings in Tuscaloosa, but there is a valuable lesson to be learned between the height of the Roman Empire and the present day…

The good days don’t always last quite as long as you think they will.

Nate Oats taught math, not history, at Romulus High School in Michigan. But he would be wise to thumb through some texts about the Romans if he wants tips on keeping the party that is the Alabama basketball team bouncing into next season. Because the salad days of Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, Clifford Omoruyi and Chris Youngblood just went bouncing out the door.

Sears, Nelson, Omoruyi and Youngblood represented not just the lifeblood of the 2024-25 Crimson Tide, but darn near all its formidable talent. Combined, those 4 players delivered 48.3 points and 19.3 rebounds per game – coming in at 53% of the total points and 46% of the total rebounds the Tide amassed in their run to the Elite Eight.

Put another way, half the Alabama basketball team just ran out of eligibility right at the end of the best 3-year run in school history. The 2022-23 Tide won the SEC regular-season and tournament titles and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history. The 2023-24 team went to the Final Four, and the 2024-25 team made it 3 straight Sweet 16s and back-to-back Elite Eights.

Of course, a lot of that had to do with Sears and Nelson – as they were the superstar transfer tandem that led Alabama to its first Final Four in school history in 2023-24. That season, Sears and Nelson exploded on the national scene to deliver 21.5 points per game (Sears) and 11.9 ppg (Nelson) to vault the Tide into the national semifinals before eventually losing to back-to-back champ UConn.

Oats dipped back into the transfer portal after that run to pick up Omoruyi and Youngblood – thus effectively reloading for another deep NCAA Tournament run. Omoruyi was a jewel, starting all 37 games and delivering 7.9 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Youngblood was a home-grown returner from Tuscaloosa, dealt with ankle and eye injuries at varying points of the season but was a solid contributor.

That isn’t the only problem befalling Oats and Alabama heading into 2025-26. Talented freshman Labaron Philon is a projected first-round NBA Draft selection (the only one of the departing Tide players to gain such a distinction), and if he departs he also takes 10.6 points, a team-high 50 steals and 140 assists with him.

Not that anyone should be staging a telethon for Oats, though perhaps Alabama should be doing some major fundraising. In the new world of million-dollar NIL deals, Oats’ budget to lure big-time recruits via the portal isn’t as deep as top-tier programs like Duke, Florida, Kentucky and Connecticut. That means the Tide effectively needs to strike gold with players like Sears (who came from Ohio and raked in less than $1 million last year) who might not command the NIL riches that other stars do.

We have already seen that cash-flow issue manifest itself in Oats’ inability to land a couple of transfer talents that took better money deals elsewhere – even though his NBA-style offense enjoys a bit of a “Nate Oats discount” on the NIL trail. Still, because so much of Alabama’s NIL efforts are focused on football, basketball will have to build a better recruiting mousetrap if it wants to continue competing.

Alabama has already earned a quick commitment from an enticing big man, as 7-footer Noah Williamson quickly chose the Crimson Tide the Monday after the Elite Eight loss. And Oats has his eyes on Abdi Nashir (Monmouth), Jalil Bethea (Miami), Corey Chest (LSU) and Rylan Griffen (Kansas).

Are any of those players the next Mark Sears, a transcendent talent worthy of Naismith and Wooden player of the year honors while simultaneously not costing both an arm and a leg? No one, not even Oats, knows.

To be sure, though, the Alabama coach would be wise to make his way from the math department to the history department if he doesn’t want Alabama to resemble the Roman ruins right after rising to the top of the college basketball world.

An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.