Alabama Basketball: Who is the Crimson Tide’s most important player in 2017-18?

The Alabama Crimson Tide should be an NCAA Tournament team next season, but who is their most important player in 2017-18?

Avery Johnson has the Alabama Crimson Tide headed in the right direction, and 2017-18 is setting up to be their best season yet.

But which player is the most important to their success?

It is extremely difficult to pick the most important player on a team that plays team basketball rather than a team that has one or two go-to guys and everyone else is a role player, so let’s narrow it down and go from there.

Forward Braxton Key and guard Dazon Ingram will be the two most important players for the Crimson Tide next season. Both contributed across the board in terms of stats, both led the team in scoring, and both should increase on those stats heading into 2017-18. This team will live and die on the play of Key and Ingram, as these two should be the focal point of Alabama yet again.

That being said, senior guard Riley Norris will be the most important player for the Crimson Tide in the 2017-18 season.

As a solid veteran last season, he just needed to contribute and anchor a young squad, which he did. Now, as a senior, Norris has a real opportunity to step up and be a scorer.

The young players on this team know their role, they will have gelled with Norris and the rest of the team, and the squad as a whole should be used to Johnson’s system. Everything is setting up for Norris to increase his nine-point per game scoring load by anywhere from three to five points per game.

Alabama will be one of the best teams in the SEC next season, and I really do not see a scenario in which they miss out on postseason play.

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However, the play of Norris will make a massive impact on this team and could be the difference between a first round exit and a trip to the Sweet 16 – or better.