Projecting Alabama Basketball’s path to a 2021 National Championship

Alabama in title game

If the Crimson Tide were able to somehow get into the National Championship, the most likely opponents would be Illinois, Baylor, Houston, Ohio State, West Virginia, Arkansas, or even Oklahoma State.

I will however be focusing on the two one seeds in Illinois and Baylor, as they are the most likely teams out of the 32 on the other side of the bracket, to reach the Final Four and National Championship.

Illinois is an incredible team and has as good a chance as anyone to win the National Championship. The Illini are 23-6 on the season, ranked third in the NET, are 9-1 over their last 10, won the Big 10, and are a combined 17-6 against quadrant one and two opponents.

Illinois has arguably the best duo in college basketball between Ayo Dosunmu, and Kofi Cockburn, and for that reason, they are a serious threat to take down the Zags, and any other team in the nation for that matter.

As for Baylor, they started the season off incredibly, but since they went on a COVID pause, they simply have not been the same team. Nonetheless, the Bears are still second in the NET rankings, are 22-2 on the season, and hold a 10-2 record against quadrant one and two opponents, but their problem resides with the fact that their two losses have come in their last six games.

Because of this, I could see Baylor getting to the Final Four, but they would struggle with Illinois.

With this, I believe if Alabama were to get to the National Championship, they would face off with the Illinois Fighting Illini, and because of Illinois’ duo of Dosumu and Cockburn, I’m not too confident that the Tide could win that game.

Overall, I think Alabama will reach their first Final Four in program history, but I think that Is where their run will end.