Alabama is Very Likely to be America’s New No. 1 Team

It’s always fun to have madness before March and college basketball fans certainly got their money’s worth on Saturday. No. 1 Auburn fell to No. 6 Florida 90-81 at home, giving the Tigers their first loss in SEC play. Additionally, Clemson, Alabama’s 2024 Elite Eight foe, upset No. 2 Duke 77-71 at home just as Alabama-Arkansas was getting underway.

In other words, moments into Saturday night’s matchup in Fayetteville, the Crimson Tide was given a chip on its shoulder. If Alabama beat Arkansas, head coach Nate Oats and company would all but certainly be ranked as the new No. 1 team in America on Monday. As the final score suggests, this is very likely to become a reality.

While this will become a tremendous accomplishment, Oats, a former math teacher who is renowned for using numbers and analytics in every facet of basketball, doesn’t seem to invest much thought into the number placed before his team on every score bug.

“I don’t really care, to be honest with you,” Oats said during the postgame press conference. “I’m probably not going to make a pitch [to be No. 1]. I did see that Auburn lost before we played because I try to watch SEC games when we’ve got a late game. Florida came in ready to play. So now we’re tied, and we’ve got to just take care of business. We’ve got full control of our own destiny to win the SEC right now.

“Wherever the voters want to put us, it doesn’t matter. I mean, we’ll be one, two or three, that is for sure. And I don’t really care. Let’s focus on Texas. Let’s try to win an SEC regular season championship and let all that other stuff fall where it may.”

As Oats mentioned, Alabama is now tied with Iron Bowl rival Auburn for the top spot in the conference as each program has a 9-1 record against the SEC. The Crimson Tide will face the Tigers at home next Saturday in a matchup that will play host to ESPN’s College Gameday. However, the Longhorns are Alabama’s sole focus at this time.

Crimson Tide Nearly Blows 18-Point Lead in Second Half

Alabama head coach Nate Oats has been outspoken about the Crimson Tide’s starts to the second halves of games throughout SEC play. There have been numerous times where he’s had to call a quick timeout or change the personnel after a couple of minutes due to a lackluster beginning out of the break.

However, after a first half that featured nine turnovers by Alabama and a stellar 15-point start for Arkansas forward Zvonimir Ivisic, the Crimson Tide locked in coming out of the halftime locker room. Forward Grant Nelson and guard Chris Youngblood led an Alabama brigade that got their team out to an 18-point lead with 12 minutes to go.

But a switch flipped in Calipari and company shortly after as the Razorbacks proceeded to go on a 12-0 run led by Ivisic, who Oats said “killed us tonight,” and forward Adou Thiero. Alabama was back to turning the ball over and missing opportunities.

“We had some turnovers there,” Oats said. “We missed a couple of shots we should’ve made. We’ve got to make free throws. We had some turnovers on their run and we didn’t do a very good job of guarding some of their actions. They just got downhill and we didn’t have the help where it was supposed to be. We missed some switches we were supposed to have.”

All of a sudden, what was an 18-point runaway game turned into an edge-of-your-seat battle in the final couple of minutes as Arkansas trimmed the margin all the way down to three points. Ivisic and Thiero combined for 49 points on Saturday night, 23 of which came in the second half.

“They’ve got a bunch of hard-playing guys,” Oats said. “They’ve got some pride. They didn’t have a very good start. Obviously Boogie [Fland] is a really good player, we recruited him, but I think when he went out [with a season-ending thumb injury] it helped to find some holes maybe. Despite how good of a player he personally is, I think it helped to find some roles for some other guys so they can get their rotation a little tighter.”

Alabama Dominates in Two Stat Categories

Since his arrival in 2019, Oats has built Alabama’s offense around a fast-paced system that heavily involves shots taken from behind the arc. Year after year, the Crimson Tide is among the top scoring offenses in the nation and this year is no different as 90.2 points per game is the most in the country.

Alabama finished the night just a few points below their absurd average, as it was still a very respectable tally. However, the Tide only made five of its 19 attempts from deep. Alabama’s 26 percent success rate from long range is its fifth-worst mark of the season.

Instead of threes, Oats’ crew found its rhythm on the interior as Alabama scored 56 points in the paint compared to the Razorbacks’ 36 on an outstanding 29-for-43 (67.4 percent) from two-point range. The Crimson Tide didn’t even attempt a non-rim two for the entire game and forward Grant Nelson (15 points) and guards Chris Youngblood (15) and Mark Sears (11) were some of the leaders in this category.

“We had to score from somewhere,” Oats said. “Shoot, not one of our better three-point shooting games. They did a pretty good job defensively running us off the line, being super physical, not letting our shooters come off some screens…But we’re aggressively driving it to the rim. We’re getting right at the front of the rim. And when they’re not giving up threes and the lane’s open, we’ll get downhill and go to the rim.”

Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate was another member of the Crimson Tide who thrived down low as he scored 14 points on an elite 7-for-9 from the field. Dioubate led the bench to 31 points compared to Arkansas’ 11. Additionally, forward Aiden Sherrell continued to show growth in the paint as he scored seven points in just eight minutes of action.

Last and most certainly not least, Alabama sixth-man Aden Holloway logged eight points with two of the team’s five threes while dishing a team-high four assists with zero turnovers. His passing was on point against Arkansas.

“I want [Holloway] to shoot it every time,” Oats said. “Any of those that he gets open, we want him to shoot, and we’re just trying to pump him full of confidence and tell him he cannot pass up any open looks. Period. At any point. We have got to try to find him some more shots.”