Where Alabama ranks in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index ahead of matchup with Tennessee

Alabama is among the nation’s elite in ESPN’s Basketball Power Index.

[autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] and the Alabama men’s basketball team are coming off a road win against arch-rival Auburn and now the Tide has claimed the No. 1 ranking in both the AP and the USA TODAY Coaches poll.

Things will not be getting any easier for the Tide as a road game Wednesday night against Tennessee is up next.

Before Alabama tips things off against the Volunteers, let’s look at the latest update of ESPN’s Basketball Power Index.

According to ESPN, the BPI is a “measure of team strength that is meant to be the best predictor of performance going forward. BPI represents how many points above or below average a team is. Strength of Record (SOR) is a measure of team accomplishment based on how difficult a team’s W-L record is to achieve. Game predictions account for opponent strength, pace of play, site, travel distance, day’s rest, and altitude, and are used to simulate the season 10,000 times to produce season projections. Numbers update daily.”

Here is a breakdown of where Alabama ranks in the BPI.