The 2024-25 men’s basketball season ended Saturday with a loss to Duke in the Crimson Tide’s second consecutive Elite Eight berth. Here’s a look back at the biggest moments from throughout the season.
2024 Final Four banner reveal
On Oct. 13, the team honored its first-ever Final Four run from the previous season with a banner unveiling event at Coleman Coliseum. In addition to showing off the banner, the evening’s events featured a live scrimmage, a 3-point shooting contest and an interview with head coach Nate Oats.
“We’re here to celebrate something that they said would never, and could never be done,” Alabama play-by-play announcer Chris Stewart said during the event.
Players Era Festival
From Nov. 27 to Dec. 1, the Crimson Tide participated in the inaugural Players Era Festival tournament in Las Vegas, Nevada. This was a one-of-a-kind midseason tournament that featured some of the best teams from across the country.
Alabama won in overtime in the tournament’s first game against Houston, which was bound for the Final Four. Then, it beat Rutgers to secure a spot in the title game. However, the team lost to Oregon in the championship.
The Crimson Tide is slated to return to the field for the 2025 edition of the tournament, which has been expanded and now includes Auburn in the bracket. This means fans could see the Iron Bowl of Basketball three times in one regular season.
Win in the Dean Dome
On Dec. 4, fresh off the Players Era Festival, Alabama traveled to the Dean E. Smith Center to take on historic national powerhouse North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
The raucous environment inside the “Dean Dome,” paired with the primetime hype between two national powerhouses, made the 15-point win huge for the team’s confidence after the loss to Oregon in Las Vegas.
“I throughout our guys showed a lot of toughness and resilience,” Oats said. “We came off of a tough loss to Oregon and easily could have let that loss turn into two. But I thought they got their minds right. I thought they were ready to play.”
The win marked the Crimson Tide’s third straight over the Tar Heels and the first time the team had ever won in Chapel Hill. There is also the fact that Alabama forward Jarin Stevenson is a Chapel Hill native who chose the Crimson Tide over North Carolina.
Blue Collar beats Blue Blood
The team bounced back from an upset loss to Ole Miss at home with a huge road win versus then-No. 8 Kentucky on Jan. 18. This marked Alabama’s first road win versus a top 10 Kentucky team since 2002.
“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys,” Oats said. “After the poor showing Tuesday, to bounce back and play the way we did here today.”
Lightning struck twice a month later when the Crimson Tide welcomed the Wildcats into Coleman Coliseum and dominated them to a 13-point win, completing the season sweep. This was just the second time since 1989 that Alabama had accomplished the feat.
This was also the game when the Crimson Tide’s defense began to play at a higher level than at any point during the season.
Kentucky head coach Mark Pope even called Alabama a “terrific defensive team,” something that was not usually associated with Alabama teams of recent years.
Iron Bowl buzzer beater
The Crimson Tide’s regular season finale on March 8 was a battle with No. 1 Auburn on the road after losing back-to-back games versus top-10 teams.
In what was a nerve-racking back-and-forth game from start to finish, Alabama came out on top thanks to a buzzer-beating one-handed floater from guard Mark Sears in his final regular season game, avoiding the season sweep. It also came just one week after the team lost at Tennessee when the Volunteers defeated the Crimson Tide in buzzer-beating fashion.
Oats called the win big for both the team and all Alabama fans.
SEC Tournament
Alabama was the No. 3 seed in the SEC Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee, and drew 6 seed Kentucky in the quarterfinals on March 14.
In a highly anticipated matchup, Alabama defeated the Wildcats, handing them their largest loss in SEC Tournament history, 99-70.
This was the only time Alabama defeated Kentucky in three consecutive games.
Elite Eight run
The team capped off the 2024-25 campaign with its second consecutive trip to the Elite Eight, a program first. As the 2 seed in the East Region, the Crimson Tide took down 15 seed Robert Morris, 7 seed Saint Mary’s and 6 seed BYU during its run.
Alabama fell to 1 seed and national championship favorite Duke in the Elite Eight, ending its season. After the game, Oats expressed his optimism for the future of the program and how the standard of Alabama basketball has been raised.
“With the standard of excellence we’ve set across all of college basketball, we’ve established ourselves as one of the best programs in the country,” Oats said. “We’ll get back to the Final Four and win one here soon.”
