NCAA Basketball: Top 25 offseason winners entering 2024-25 season

No. 8 - Alabama Crimson Tide: Monday night expectations

After taking the Alabama Crimson Tide to its first-ever Final Four in program history, Nate Oats shows no signs of slowing down. 

The Crimson Tide have been among the SEC’s best over the past four seasons. Now they return crucial pieces of its core from last year’s banner-raising group. Entering the 2024-25 season, the Tide are a consensus preseason top-three team in the country. 

Addressing the elephant in the room, Alabama returns the high-scoring, electrifying All-American PG Mark Sears, who averaged 21.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG and four APG, shooting nearly 44% from three-point range. Sears will be among NCAA basketball’s best players entering the 2024-25 season.

In addition to Sears, 6-foot-10 F Grant Nelson returns, who averaged nearly 12 PPG and six RPG for the Crimson Tide last season. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Jarin Stevenson also return, giving Nate Oats a excellent core to build off of -- and this isn’t including the plethora of highly-coveted transfers highlighted en route to Tuscaloosa. Highlighted by Cliff Omoruyi (Rutgers) and Chris Youngblood (South Florida) (among others), the Tide was ranked the No. 1 winner from the transfer portal this summer.

On paper, there are few teams as talented as Alabama. Nate Oats has built a big-time winner this offseason as the Tide set its expectations toward a Monday night victory.