Alabama Basketball: Are the Tide in position to win it all next season?

Alabama Basketball HC Nate Oats is trying to add the sport of basketball to the list of Crimson Tide legends and based upon his success this past season, Coach Oats is well on his way to adding college hoops to the Crimson Tide repertoire.

I have to admit is as an old sports fan that it's sometimes confounding to think of the Southeastern Conference as anything but a football conference. However, I digress in saying that simply because the SEC is quite simply the dominant sports conference in the NCAA. The current Women's College World Series has two conference representatives currently playing in the tournament (Alabama and Florida at the time of this article) and it's no surprise if multiple SEC teams qualify for the Men's College World Series as well. Simply put: the SEC reigns supreme in many collegiate sports and drives the sports train in terms of the NCAA.

Things are about to take a paradigm shift as the SEC is now developing into a premier basketball conference as well. Yes, Kentucky is part of the SEC and has been a dominant force in collegiate hoops since the days of Adolph Rupp but multiple SEC schools, including Alabama, are making the jump into the basketball foray and look to be quite simply dangerous as the preseason 2024-25 rankings are already being compiled. Head coach Nate Oats has simply turned Alabama men's basketball into a force to be reckoned with not only in the SEC but as an elite hoops program.

Did I mention that Alabama ran through a Cinderella-like story last season and finished as a Final Four program before losing to eventual national champion UConn? With a 21-10 regular season record and a near-storybook drive through the NCAA tournament, the Crimson Tide made a historic run in last season's March Madness and it comes as no shock to anyone that Alabama is set to repeat their heroic efforts this upcoming season.

With guard Mark Sears and forward Javin Stevenson deciding to return to Tuscaloosa next season rather than take their chances in the upcoming NBA draft, both players' intentions signal that something big is building up with Alabama basketball. Multiple college basketball analysts including Andy Katz have indicated in no uncertain terms that Alabama looks to be the number one men's team in preseason polls, which bodes well for both the Crimson Tide and the SEC as this conference has no less than eight teams in Katz's preseason top 36 list

Despite the preseason accolades, it's presumptuous to think that the SEC this upcoming season will be a cakewalk for Alabama and that the conference is simply up for grabs. With Mark Pope taking over at Kentucky and John Calipari moving on to rejuvenate the Arkansas Razorbacks, not to mention stellar programs such as Tennessee and new SEC arrival Texas making their mark at the national level as well, Nate Oats and company will have their hands full in fulfilling the preseason predictions. Get ready fans, the SEC looks to make its mark as a basketball conference this upcoming season.