Last season, the Alabama men’s basketball team made it over the hump by appearing in its first-ever Final Four.
It was the highest point of the Crimson Tide’s success since Nate Oats took over as head coach and propelled the program into the upper echelon of college basketball.
Oats set this goal right from the start during his introductory press conference in March 2019, saying that he wanted to see a reflection of the school’s winning football traditions in the basketball program.
“The football program has set the standard of excellence around here at the highest possible level you can set for anything,” Oats said. “We’re going to work our tails off every day to get this thing going in that direction.”
This season, after bringing in a top-three recruiting class along with key transfers and returning multiple starters from last year’s roster, the Crimson Tide has all the makings of one of the best teams in the country for the 2024-25 season.
What has remained the same from year to year for the Crimson Tide is the difficulty of its nonconference schedule.
Scheduling marquee matchups against juggernauts like North Carolina, Creighton and Purdue conveys a message that Oats and his team welcome heavy competition early in the season to prepare for the harsh competition of conference play and the NCAA Tournament.
“I want our guys to play against tough teams, whether it’s the non-conference, preseason, whatever. We’ll be better for it. It’s good for us,” Oats said in 2022.
SEC competition will also be tough for the Crimson Tide, as it faces two matchups with Kentucky, a road test at Tennessee and two new editions of the “Iron Bowl of Basketball” against Auburn. These meetings and the other games that Alabama plays within the SEC pose a tough but welcomed challenge for the Crimson Tide.
One of the biggest things that happened this offseason for Alabama was the return of star point guard Mark Sears. He was Alabama’s top contributor last season and went on a tear when it mattered most in the NCAA Tournament, leading the Crimson Tide during its Final Four run. The performance earned him the most outstanding player award for the West region of the bracket.
After putting his NBA dreams on hold and returning to Tuscaloosa this year, Sears had a clear goal.
“I was comfortable coming back to try and bring home a national championship to Alabama,” he said.
