Alabama fell, 87-78, at Purdue Friday night as the Crimson Tide’s early season 3-point shooting woes continued.
Trey Kaufman-Penn had a game-high 26 points, Braden Smith had a double-double, and the hot-shooting Purdue Boilermakers handed No. 2 Alabama basketball its first loss of the season, 87-78, inside a raucous Mackey Arena Friday night.
In the first big nonconference test for Nate Oats’ team, Alabama (3-1) seemed to be playing with nerves early on, missing open looks and not finishing baskets. Their struggles from behind the arc continued for a third straight game. Alabama shot 31 percent (9-for-29) from downtown and 44 percent overall from the field.
Top scorer Mark Sears was held to 15 points and made just one of six shots from behind the arc. Freshman Labaron Philon’s 18 points off the bench led the Crimson Tide.
By contrast, No. 12 Purdue (4-0) shot a lights-out 9-of-16 from 3-point range and made 49.2 percent of its baskets from the field.
Alabama would use an 11-2 run in the second half to take its biggest lead of the night at 65-59 following a 3-pointer from Auburn transfer Aden Holloway with 11 minutes left in the game.
The lead lasted no time. Purdue surged with a decisive 13-0 run that included three consecutive 3-point shots by freshman guard C.J. Cox. As the game wore on, Alabama missed 11 of 12 shots at one point as Purdue built a 75-68 lead with under five minutes left.
Smith scored 17 points and had 10 assists for Purdue. Fletcher Loyer was another hot shooter, adding 17 points, as well.
Alabama got 12 points from Grant Nelson and 11 from Latrell Wrightsell.
Alabama basketball 2024 schedule
Alabama will face No. 20 Illinois Wednesday night in the C.M. Newton Classic at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. Tipoff is at 8 p.m CT. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
Alabama survives a challenging test from a gritty Arkansas State team to improve to 2-0.
The No. 2 ranked Alabama Crimson Tide overcame a first-half foul fest and a cold shooting night in a 88-79 win over the Arkansas State Red Wolves in nonconference play Friday night at Coleman Coliseum.
At halftime, Alabama (2-0) had let a 16-point first-half lead dwindle to just three at 43-40. A total of 31 fouls were charged to the two teams by referee Pat Adams and crew before the buzzer sounded at intermission.
In the second half, Arkansas State (1-1) tied the game at 68-all with seven minutes to play. But Alabama managed to pull away thanks to an 11-2 run that was capped by freshman Derrion Reed’s dunk with 2:54 left. That extended the Crimson Tide lead to nine at 81-72.
Mark Sears led Alabama (2-0) with 19 points. Sears went 0-for-5 from 3-point range and was 4-of-12 from the field. As a team, Alabama shot just 40.9 percent vs. the 63 percent it hit from in the season opener against UNC Asheville on Monday. They were 6-of-31 from behind the arc.
Moreover, the Tide struggled from the charity stripe, making only 63.6 percent of its free throws (28-of-44).
Senior forward Grant Nelson, freshman Labaron Philon, and Rutgers transfer Clifford Omoruyi all had 12 points behind Sears. Nelson added six rebounds in 12 minutes of action as he eases his way back into playing time from a minutes restriction stemming from an abdominal injury.
Alabama returns to action on Monday when the McNeese State Cowboys, led by former LSU Tigers coach Will Wade, visits Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 6 p.m. CT. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
The preseason accolades continue to come in for Alabama guard Mark Sears.
On Wednesday afternoon, the preseason All-SEC teams and Player of the Year were officially announced by the conference, as voted on by the 16 basketball coaches across the Southeastern Conference.
As expected, the Alabama Crimson Tide were featured in this, headlined by guard Mark Sears being named the 2024-25 preseason SEC Player of the Year.
Sears was also a preseason First Team All-SEC selection by the conference’s coaches, while forward Grant Nelson was named Second Team All-SEC.
As mentioned, this was voted on by the conference’s 16 coaches, which is different than the preseason media poll that came out a few weeks ago. In that poll, Alabama was picked to win the SEC, while Sears was also picked as the preseason SEC Player of the Year as well.
Sears and Nelson were also both preseason First and Second Team All-SEC selections, respectively.
Two Alabama players named to preseason watch list for college basketball’s top individual honor.
The preseason honors continue to roll in for Alabama Crimson Tide standout Mark Sears, as the guard was named to the watch list for the Naismith Player of the Year. In addition to Sears, forward Grant Nelson was also named to the preseason watch list for the award.
College basketball’s top individual honor, the Naismith Trophy is presented annually to the top player in the sport, and has been won each of the last two seasons by former Purdue center Zach Edey.
With the Purdue star having since moved on the NBA as well, it means that there will be a new winner this season, and Sears is a popular preseason pick to do just that.
The preseason SEC Player of the Year, Sears was one of the top point guards in college basketball a year ago, averaging 21.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 4 APG, and 1.6 SPG across 37 games. Sears also shot 50.8% from the field, 43.6% from three, and 85.7% at the free throw line, and received numerous honors that included All-American, First Team All-SEC, and more.
As for Nelson, the forward also started all 37 games for Alabama a year ago, averaging 11.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, and 1.6 BPG. Nelson also shot 48.8% from the field, 27.3% from three, and 81.3% at the free throw line.
The two-time defending national champion UConn Huskies were ranked No. 3 with the Houston Cougars No. 4. The Duke Blue Devils and freshman sensation Cooper Flagg rounded out the top five.
Fresh off the program’s first trip to the Final Four in school history, and led by returning players like top-scoring guard Mark Sears (a 2024-25 AP preseason All-American) and forward Grant Nelson, Alabama has a grueling nonconference slate — even by Oats’ scheduling standards.
In a stretch from mid-November through mid-December, the Crimson Tide will travel to West Lafayette, Ind., to face the 13th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers on Nov. 15, followed by the 24th-ranked Illinois Fighting Illini at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena on Nov. 20.
The Tide will then head to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival starting Nov. 26 with a game against Houston, followed by a matchup with No. 25 Rutgers a day later. Alabama will close the Players Era Festival with a matchup against unranked Notre Dame on Nov. 30.
From there, the Crimson Tide visits the 10th-ranked North Carolina Tar Heels in Chapel Hill for a Sweet 16 rematch with RJ Davis and company on Dec. 4 as part of the SEC-ACC Challenge. Alabama closes its stretch of Top 25 competition against the 14th-ranked Creighton Bluejays on Dec. 14 in Tuscaloosa.
Alabama opens the regular season against UNC Asheville at Coleman Coliseum on Monday, Nov. 4. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
2024-25 Preseason Men’s Basketball Coaches Poll
Rank
School
Last Year’s Record
Points
1
Kansas
23-11
743 (15)
2
Alabama
25-12
718 (6)
3
Connecticut
37-3
717 (6)
4
Houston
32-5
698 (4)
5
Duke
27-9
625
6
Iowa State
29-8
591
7
Gonzaga
27-8
575
8
Baylor
24-11
545
9
Arizona
27-9
510
10
North Carolina
29-8
498
11
Auburn
27-8
465
12
Tennessee
27-9
437
13
Purdue
34-5
390
14
Creighton
25-10
342
15
Texas A&M
21-15
332
16
Arkansas
16-17
272
17
Marquette
27-10
268
18
Indiana
19-14
208
19
Texas
21-13
166
20
Cincinnati
22-15
163
21
Florida
24-12
130
22
UCLA
16-17
123
23
Kentucky
23-10
95
24
Illinois
29-9
87
25
Mississippi
20-12
66
Dropped Out:
No. 13 North Carolina State (26-15); No. 15 Clemson (24-12); No. 18 San Diego State (26-11); No. 20 Utah State (28-7); No. 22 Saint Mary’s (26-8); No. 23 South Carolina (26-8); No. 24 Washington State (25-10); No. 25 Texas Tech (23-11)
Others Receiving Votes:
Texas Tech (23-11) 60; Rutgers (15-17) 57; St. John’s (20-13) 42; Xavier (16-18) 26; Michigan State (20-15) 25; Brigham Young (23-11) 16; Oregon (24-12) 16; Kansas State (19-15) 11; Boise State (22-11) 9; Saint Mary’s (26-8) 9; Clemson (24-12) 8; Dayton (25-8) 7; Ohio State (22-14) 7; Maryland (16-17) 4; Grand Canyon (30-5) 3; Mississippi State (21-14) 2; Princeton (24-5) 2; San Diego State (26-11) 2; Virginia (23-11) 2; Wake Forest (21-14); Wisconsin (22-14)
The USA TODAY Sports Board of Coaches is made up of 31 head coaches at Division I institutions. All are members of the National Association of Basketball Coaches. The board for the 2024-25 season: Tobin Anderson, Iona; Adrian Autry, Syracuse; John Becker, Vermont; Randy Bennett, Saint Mary’s; Jeff Boals, Ohio; Alvin Brooks, Lamar; Scott Drew, Baylor; Matt Driscoll, North Florida; Dan Earl, Chattanooga; Jonas Hayes, Georgia State; Alan Huss, High Point; Donte’ Jackson, Grambling; Ben Jacobson, Northern Iowa; James Jones, Yale; Greg Kampe, Oakland; Brad Korn, Southeast Missouri State; Greg McDermott, Creighton; Nick McDevitt, Middle Tennessee; Mike McGarvey, Lafayette; Niko Medved, Colorado State; Dan Monson, Eastern Washington; Chris Mooney, Richmond; Nate Oats, Alabama; Eric Olen, UC San Diego; Matt Painter, Purdue; Michael Schwartz, East Carolina; Patrick Sellers, Central Connecticut State; Zach Spiker, Drexel; Brett Tanner, Abilene Christian; Stan Waterman, Delaware State; Jeff Wulbrun, Denver.
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The preseason accolades continue to roll in for Sears.
With basketball season right around the corner, the AP released their 2024-25 Preseason All-America Team on Monday afternoon, with Alabama Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears one of the players mentioned.
Sears was one of six total players selected, with the Alabama guard receiving 54-of-55 votes from the national media panel, making him a near unanimous selection.
Joining Sears on the team were North Carolina guard RJ Davis, Kansas forward Hunter Dickinson, Auburn forward Johni Broome, Arizona guard Caleb Love, and Duke forward Cooper Flagg.
The Alabama guard, who was also recently named the SEC Preseason Player of the Year, returns this season to lead a Crimson Tide team that is ranked No. 2 nationally to begin the year.
Sears is also coming off a season in which he started all 37 games for the Crimson Tide to average a career-high 21.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 4 APG, and 1.6 SPG to earn multiple honors at seasons end.
The Alabama guard also led the conference with a 60.4 effective field goal percentage, while also shooting 43.6% from three, and figures to be one of college basketball’s top players once again this season.
🚨 AP Preseason All-America First-Team
🏀 Mark Sears 🏀 Caleb Love 🏀 RJ Davis 🏀 Cooper Flagg 🏀 Johni Broome 🏀 Hunter Dickinson pic.twitter.com/EaqIt85f8Z
This college basketball expert tabs Alabama as the best in college basketball entering the 2024-25 season.
With only 18 days until the start of college basketball’s regular season, analysts and experts are making their predictions for the year ahead — including for the Alabama Crimson Tide.
On Thursday, CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander unveiled his Top 100 (And 1) rankings entering 2024-25. Norlander ranked the Crimson Tide No. 1 ahead of the Houston Cougars at No. 2 and the Kansas Jayhawks at No. 3. The two-time defending national champion UConn Huskies were ranked fourth with the Duke Blue Devils fifth.
Per Norlander’s analysis of ranking of Alabama at No. 1:
“In what feels like a wide-open season just over the horizon, I’m taking a team at No. 1 with the preseason national player of the year; a team that brought in one of the best transfer classes of the offseason; a team that is adding multiple five-star freshman; and a team that had the No. 2-ranked offense last season en route to the Final Four. Alabama.
The Tide are in the rare spot of having the men’s basketball band ranked higher in the preseason than the football fellas, just the eighth time that’s happened and the first time since 2006. (Bama football was No. 5 in the preseason.) Alabama, of course, is coming off its first Final Four in school history. Now it’s going to try to become just the fourth SEC school (joining Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky) to make back-to-back Final Fours. Remember, the Tide was wicked unpredictable on defense last season, but survived in the NCAAs despite that.”
Norlander isn’t the only one who favors Alabama entering the season. CBS Sports’ David Cobb recently picked the Crimson Tide to finish atop the SEC in his projected order of finish. Nate Oats’ team was ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 Poll on Monday.
Alabama opens the regular season Nov. 4 against UNC Greensboro at Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
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Here’s everything Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats said at SEC Media Days.
Expectations for the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball program have never been higher.
Just months after making their first Final Four appearance, the Crimson Tide are ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Top 25 Men’s College Basketball Poll and are a strong pick by national analysts to win the SEC, which featured eight teams represented at last season’s NCAA Tournament.
Alabama will be returning top scoring guard Mark Sears as well as forward Grant Nelson, both huge contributors to the Tide’s March Madness run that included an 89-87 victory over No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16 and a hard-fought 89-82 win over a gritty, experienced Clemson Tigers squad in the Elite Eight.
But Oats wasn’t focused on last season’s trip to the Final Four during his appearance at SEC Media Days in Birmingham on Tuesday. To him, that Final Four run is already “old news.”
“We obviously used it in recruiting to get some of them here,” Oats said. “But I don’t really want to talk about it that much with the team. We had the celebration Friday where we raised the banner and gave out the rings. The issue is that eight out of our 13 scholarship guys weren’t here last year.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats speaks during SEC Media Day at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024. Gary Cosby Jr.-Tuscaloosa News / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images
“That was last year. It’s kind of old news,” Oats added. “It was great for the program, for the fans, for the university to be able to celebrate it, but it has nothing to do with what we’ve got going on this year. So, we’re trying to flip the page, move on, and not really address it. It was nice. It was good for our league, it’s good for our school and good for our program, but we’ve got to focus on what we’ve got to do this year, and that’s where we’re trying to get our guys’ minds at.”
Alabama will open the 2024-25 regular season against UNC Asheville on Nov. 4 at Coleman Coliseum. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. The game will be televised on ESPNU.
Here’s everything Oats said at SEC Media Days entering his sixth season in Tuscaloosa.
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CBS Sports names Crimson Tide PG to Preseason All-American First Team.
After guiding the Alabama Crimson Tide to their first-ever Final Four appearance a season ago, many thought PG Mark Sears would ride off into the sunset and declare for the NBA draft. Fortunately for fans of the Crimson Tide, he decided to stay in Tuscaloosa for one last go-around after testing the draft process.
Sears was a First-team All-SEC member and Consensus second-team All-American a season ago, but expectations are even higher this year as the SEC recognized him as the Preseason Player of the Year today. But the accolades didn’t stop there as CBS Sports named Sears to their preseason All-American First-team alongside RJ Davis of North Carolina, Hunter Dickinson of Kansas, Ryan Kalkbrenner of Creighton and Cooper Flagg of Duke.
Over the last two seasons, Sears has started all 74 Alabama games and, in 2024, averaged 21.5 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.0 apg and 1.6 spg. With a much deeper roster this year I think some of Sears numbers will come down, but he will still be the guy Oats relies on in crunch time situations.
Alabama was ranked No. 2 in the first AP Poll released earlier today, and as crazy as it is to think, the basketball team probably has a better chance of winning a national title than the football team. CBS Sports raves of Sears saying,
“The only unanimous All-America First Team pick from us – and it’s a deserved honor for Alabama’s sharpshooting Sears. The Crimson Tide star is coming off a career year in Tuscaloosa where he averaged 21.5 points, 4.0 assists and hit 43.6% of his 3s on a team that hung its hat on chucking deep bombs at a volume only a handful of others topped. He was the face and force of Alabama as it finished second in offensive efficiency on the season while leading the sport (among all 362 teams!) in points per game.”
🏀 Introducing the 2024-25 @CBSSports preseason All-America teams🏀
— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) October 14, 2024
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Beginning with his PTPers (prime-time players), guard Mark Sears was the lone player mentioned, as Vitale expects the Alabama star to be among the top players in college basketball this season. Vitale also named Sears to his list of floor generals this season alongside both Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Chris Youngblood, all of which are among his guards to watch.
Alabama also had a pair of players named to Vitale’s low post enforcers to watch in the returning Grant Nelson, as well as newcomer Clifford Omoruyi. Omoruyi was also listed among Vitale’s Marco Polo team as a transfer to watch make an impact this season.
Lastly, head coach Nate Oats also received some recognition from Vitale. Oats was named to the Frank Lloyd Wright team as one of the top coaches in college basketball.
The Crimson Tide are set to officially tipoff the 2024-25 season November 4 at home against UNC Asheville.
