Alabama Basketball Showing That the Crimson Tide Isn’t Just About Football This Year

The University of Alabama has never been recognized as a perennial powerhouse in the Southeast Conference or in college basketball in general. Sure, the Crimson Tide has had some success on the hardwood, with eight regular season SEC champions, seven conference tournament champions, and 21 NCAA tournament appearances. But Alabama has not had a regular season conference champion since 2002, an SEC tournament champ since 1991, and has never been to the Final Four. The Crimson Tide has only made it as far as the Elite Eight, and that was only once, in 2004. Other schools in the SEC, like Kentucky and Florida, have had much more success in basketball than Alabama.

Alabama was 18-16 two years ago and 16-15 last year, and was expected to be in the middle of the pack this year. But this has not been a typical year in college basketball, and not just because of Covid-19. Duke, Kentucky, and North Carolina aren’t even in this week’s AP Top 25 (although UNC is 11-5), and Alabama is #9. The Crimson Tide is 14-3 overall and 9-0 in the SEC, well ahead of tied for second Florida and LSU (6-3). On January 26th, Alabama beat Kentucky 70-59, completing its first regular season sweep of the Wildcats since 1989. Kentucky fell to an uncharacteristic 5-10 overall and 4-4 in the SEC.