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SEC Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2019-20 season

By Matthew Travis

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 17: The Auburn Tigers hold the winner's trophy after the 84-64 win against the Tennessee Volunteers during the final of the SEC Basketball Championships at Bridgestone Arena on March 17, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - MARCH 17: The Auburn Tigers hold the winner's trophy after the 84-64 win against the Tennessee Volunteers during the final of the SEC Basketball Championships at Bridgestone Arena on March 17, 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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TULSA, OKLAHOMA – MARCH 24: Head coach Nate Oats of the Buffalo Bulls yells to his team during the first half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
TULSA, OKLAHOMA – MARCH 24: Head coach Nate Oats of the Buffalo Bulls yells to his team during the first half of the second round game of the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at BOK Center on March 24, 2019 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /

. Crimson Tide . 4. team. 523. .

The Alabama Crimson Tide are coming off a very disappointing season, a year after they made it to the Round of 32 and had a top-10 pick in the draft, Alabama failed to make the NCAA Tournament. Not only did they fail to make the tournament, but as a one seed in the NIT, they lost to Norfolk State in the first round.

That being said, getting a win in the NIT or better would be an improvement in Nate Oats’ first year with the Crimson Tide. Oats is of course Alabama’s new head coach that they managed to sign from Buffalo after the firing of Avery Johnson in Tuscaloosa.

Oats joins the Tide with a fantastic resume which includes three NCAA Tournament appearances in four years as head coach of Buffalo, three MAC Tournament Championships and two MAC Regular Season Championships.

What this means is that the Crimson Tide are getting a coach in Nate Oats, who knows what he’s doing and they’re also getting a coach who is ready to change the reputation Alabama basketball has.

light. Related Story. Why Bama will be better than Auburn this season

When you hear the words ‘Alabama Crimson Tide’ what does your mind immediately go to? Nick Saban, Tua Tagovailoa and football right? Well Nate Oats is ready to modify that, not change it because that would be an impossible task, but Oats repeatedly says that if the football team can play at the highest level in Tuscaloosa, why can’t basketball too?

Oats isn’t just saying this either, in his first week with Alabama he was in California recruiting Raymond Hawkins, in Florida recruiting Trendon Watford while he was on spring break and then back in Tuscaloosa for his introductory press conference.

This plus the high-profile transfers Alabama got including Jahvon Quinerly, James ‘Beetle’ Bolden and James Rojas, goes to show you that we are going to see a new-look Crimson Tide team.Bolden is the guy to keep an eye on this upcoming season, with both Rojas and Wuinerly unable to play for the Tide just yet.

These transfers join a team with several big recruits such as Raymond Hawkins, Jaylen Forbes, Jaden Shackelford and Juwan Gary. In addition to that, Alabama also has half of their top-six scorers from last season coming back to Tuscaloosa.

Those three players being Kira Lewis jr., the top scorer for the Crimson Tide last year and also John Petty and Herb Jones. This means that Alabama will have a good mix of players who are both new and experienced which should be a good sign.

So all that being said, who will be the best player for this new-look Alabama team? That would be Kira Lewis jr., who this summer won a gold medal with the USA U-19 team in the World Cup.

Lewis was great in his freshmen season last year as the youngest player in College Basketball as he reclassified and played for Alabama as a 17-year old last season. He led the Crimson Tide with 13.5 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists and you can expect him to be even better in his sophomore season.

With Lewis at the head and a tough non-conference schedule, the Crimson Tide will finish with a record of 10-3. Alabama will play several tough opponents including Rhode Island, North Carolina, Michigan or Iowa State, Penn State, Belmont and Kansas State.

Many of these games should be winnable for the Tide with a stronger roster than they have in year’s past, which is why I only see Alabama losing three of these games overall. As for SEC play, the Crimson Tide will go 13-5 against conference opponents.

The Tide have one of the weaker conference schedules as they only have to play Kentucky, LSU and Florida a combined four times, three of which however are on the road.

What this means is that they will be playing some of the weaker SEC opponents more so than the stronger SEC opponents which could mean many wins coming for the Crimson Tide. With that, the Crimson Tide will finish the season with a 23-8 record in Nate Oats’ first year in charge.

This without a doubt means Alabama would have a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years and would be off to a good start with Nate Oats.

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