Preseason expectations were higher than ever for head coach Nate Oats’ Alabama squad.
After making an unexpected Final Four last season and retaining that squad’s core while adding key pieces from the transfer portal, the Crimson Tide was ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP poll. The team was one of the favorites to win the national championship and had expectations of another Final Four run.
Flash forward to March, and Alabama’s season is over, with the team having lost in the Elite Eight to Duke and fallen short of another Final Four run.
“We’re disappointed. We had bigger goals, and it’s disappointing to go out like we went out,” Oats said.
Many Crimson Tide fans will quickly say this season was a disappointment. The team was picked to win the SEC in the preseason poll but ultimately did not. The talent this team had heading into the season had many thinking Alabama would be cutting down nets, and that didn’t happen, either.
But it’s not fair of fans to write this season off as a failure or a disappointment. The contrary might be true, and the team might have maximized its campaign.
Making the Elite Eight in college basketball is very difficult. Making it in consecutive seasons is even harder, and Alabama was just one of three teams to do that. It’s also important to remember that this was just the third Elite Eight appearance in school history, and each should be appreciated.
“While it was disappointing for the standards we’ve set, most teams in the country didn’t set the standards as high as we set them,” Oats said.
The path to being one of the final eight teams was anything but easy for the Crimson Tide, as the team dealt with the dreaded injury bug. Guard Chris Youngblood suffered an injury during summer practice and didn’t return until December.
Just as Youngblood was about to return, disaster struck when guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. tore his ACL against Oregon and would miss the rest of the season. He was one of the most effective scorers on the team and a critical part of the offense, as he was averaging 11 points per game and shooting 42% from 3.
Guard Houston Mallette burned his redshirt in the wake of Wrightsell’s injury, but then he began having problems with his knees. He eventually got shut down for the season and headed toward a medical redshirt.
“If we would have had Wrightsell and Mallette, that changes things obviously a little bit,” Oats said after the Elite Eight.
The injuries didn’t stop heading into SEC play. Forward Derrion Reid only played six out of a possible 18 conference games as he dealt with nagging hamstring injuries, meaning the Crimson Tide had only 10 scholarship players available for most of conference play.
But despite all the roadblocks and injuries as well as facing the country’s hardest schedule according to KenPom, Alabama still went 28-9 and 13-5 in the SEC and earned a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
While it’s true the team fell a little short of preseason expectations, it’s important to contextualize Alabama’s difficulties this season.
As for the loss in the Elite Eight — Duke is one of the best teams in the country and was the most popular pick to win the tournament. It would have taken a near-perfect performance to beat the Blue Devils, but it just didn’t happen.
With all the roadblocks this team faced, it’s not crazy to say that the Crimson Tide went as far as it could. Some fans may never be satisfied, but this season shouldn’t be labeled as a failure, and this team did something the past two seasons that no other team in the country achieved.
“There was four teams that went to the Final Four last year,” Oats said. “We were the only one [this season] that was in the Elite Eight.”
With everything Oats’ group dealt with this year, it’s important to appreciate the ride and how far the group went instead of wishing for more.
