The Alabama men’s basketball team will have a couple of days to prepare for the Southeastern Conference tournament after the Crimson Tide (20-11, 12-6 SEC) earned the No. 4 seed and received a double-bye.
Alabama completed the regular season in a three-way tie for second place with Kentucky and Ole Miss. All three teams possessed 1-1 records against each other. But Kentucky earned the No. 2 seed with its win over top-seeded Florida. Ole Miss received the No. 3 seed because it defeated Alabama.
The Tide is not only playing for a conference title but also trying to get into the NCAA tournament.
Head coach Anthony Grant tried to rely on his usual mantra of approaching the schedule one game at a time. However, he also honored the significance his team’s performance in Nashville, Tenn., will have on its postseason odds.
“My standard answer is always going to be one game at a time for us,” Grant said. “But we certainly know what’s at stake in terms of an opportunity that we have, the last opportunity to try to put ourselves in position where we can play in the NCAA tournament. I think that’s something hopefully all of our guys are motivated and inspired to try to achieve.
“The bottom line is we take care of ourselves, one game at a time, and everything else takes care of itself.”
Alabama will play Friday at 2:30 p.m. CT in Nashville, Tenn. It will face the winner between No. 5 Tennessee and either No. 12 South Carolina or No. 13 Mississippi State in a quarterfinals matchup.
The Gamecocks and Bulldogs will meet in the first round of the tournament Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. CT. The winner of that game will advance to face the Volunteers in the second round on Thursday at 2:30 p.m. CT. Both games will be televised on the SEC Network.
The Tide is coming off a buzzer-beater victory in its final regular season game against Georgia. But Grant pointed out the team’s late-game collapse rather than its phenomenal finish.
“You don’t get a second chance in the postseason,” Grant said. “I don’t know that all our guys understand that. Sometimes, as a player, you look at the result, and the result the other day was a three-point win and a lot of excitement because of the half-court shot that went in. But in the process of getting us there, we’ve got to do a lot of things better if we’re going to have an extended postseason.”
Grant said his team needs to play with more consistency to find success in the SEC tournament.
Junior guard Trevor Releford has been the only steady force for Alabama this season and most notably during the closing stretch of the regular season. In his last six games, Releford has averaged 20.4 points, 3 assists and 2.5 steals per game, while shooting 56.8 percent (42-74) from the field.
“Just pointing Trevor out, the last several ballgames have been the consistency that has allowed him to be in the position he’s in,” Grant said. “We’ve got to get more consistency out of everyone on our team.”
Alabama will be competing for a shot at its seventh SEC championship in school history. It has not won a tournament title since 1991.
The contest will take place at Bridgestone Arena and will be televised on ESPNU.
