5. Alabama (9-2)
The Crimson Tide have become something of a basketball machine that just keeps rolling onwards. Even with some new faces, this team is still a powerful offense that’s capable of hanging with anyone, with notable wins over Houston and Illinois during a challenging nonconference schedule. After a long run of games against power conference foes, Nate Oats took this team on a much different challenge this past week.
Playing on the road to honor senior Grant Nelson, the Crimson Tide played at North Dakota on Wednesday night, an extremely rare situation with an SEC team playing at a Summit League foe. The Fighting Hawks were ready for the challenge, leading at the half before Alabama pulled out a 97-90 win. Nelson had 23 points and 10 rebounds in his homecoming while Mark Sears also added 23 points.
You can probably count on one hand the number of head coaches who would have played that type of game on the road and it was an admirable effort from North Dakota. However, the Crimson Tide continue to prove that their offense is on another level and that’ll serve them well against an SEC jam packed with talent. All that remains before league play are Sunday home dates with Kent State and South Dakota State.