The 2025 SEC men’s basketball tournament will begin March 12 in Nashville, Tennessee. Alabama will look to win its ninth SEC Tournament in program history.
What’s at stake for Alabama
The Crimson Tide’s main goal in Nashville is to win the SEC championship. Since head coach Nate Oats was hired, the team has had success in the tournament, winning it in 2021 and 2023.
“It’s a lot more special to win the SEC,” Oats said after winning in 2023. “Got some really good basketball programs in this league.”
A deep run in the SEC Tournament could help the Crimson Tide’s chances at securing a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament after the team struggled to win pivotal games against ranked opponents down the stretch.
A poor performance in Nashville could also cause Alabama to slide down the seeding ladder, with multiple other SEC squads vying for spots on the No. 1 and No. 2 lines.
What Alabama needs to do to win
The team has played well on both sides of the ball down the stretch, possessing the third-best adjusted offensive efficiency and 35th-best adjusted defensive efficiency, per KenPom, as of March 2. However, it has made costly mistakes that it will need to avoid committing again.
The team scored 79 points against KenPom’s No. 1-ranked defensive team in Tennessee and held a 4-point lead over the Volunteers with less than a minute to go, but it made a sequence of mistakes that led to a 7-0 Tennessee run in the final 36 seconds.
“We didn’t do a great job closing it,” Oats said. “I’m gonna take most of the blame for the last 30 seconds. It’s on me.”
Oats also admitted he subbed out his big men before he should have.
“I shouldn’t have subbed them out until after we secured the rebound. So that was on me.”
The team must also ensure it makes high-percentage shots. It has made 6.2% fewer free-throw attempts this season than in 2023-24 and 7.5% fewer 2-point attempts than in 2023-24.
Alabama will close out SEC play on Saturday, traveling to in-state rival No. 1 Auburn. The game will tip off at 1:30 p.m. CT and can be streamed on ESPN.
