There aren’t many ways to get around the fact that the Alabama Crimson Tide’s loss to Tennessee on Saturday was a stinger. Oats and the Alabama program had a chance to claim their third SEC regular season title in four years, but the Volunteers were able to find a way to come into Coleman Coliseum and escape with a win and likely their first outright SEC title since 2008.
While the loss hurts, it is not the end all be all for this Alabama team. With an SEC tournament looming in the near future and March Madness on the horizon, the Tide still have a chance to accomplish their two biggest goals they had heading into the season: an SEC Tournament Championship and a National Title. After all, we don’t play for regular-season titles in Tuscaloosa.
Despite picking up a key road win earlier in the week against Ole Miss, it wasn’t enough to prevent the Tide from dropping two spots in the Week 18 AP Poll to No. 16 in the country. However, the loss won’t be held too much against the Tide as ESPN’s Bracketology expert Joe Lunardi projects the Tide to still be a top four seed in March Madness.
[autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] has done a phenomenal job with Alabama in general, but especially in this 2023 season. The Tide lost 10 players as well as every assistant from last year’s team, and were still competing for the SEC in the first weekend of March. It’s not going to be long before people start recognizing Oats as a top ten coach in college hoops.
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