The 2024 SEC Tournament was filled with many top seeds getting upset in the quarterfinal round. This included the Alabama Crimson Tide who suffered a bad loss to the Florida Gators in the quarterfinal round. The Gators held one of the best offenses in college basketball just enough to explode onto a 102-88 and send the Crimson Tide home from Nashville early.
However, that was just the beginning of a historic Alabama postseason run. With a 21-11 record and a 13-5 record in SEC play, the Crimson Tide were set for another NCAA tournament appearance. They landed the 4th seed in the South Region. It was the fourth straight March Madness appearance and it shows just how much work Nate Oats has done in his now fifth year in Tuscaloosa.
Nate Oats Leads Bama Back to March Madness
He was pretty excited for his team about the chance to compete back in March Madness again.
“We’re pretty excited to be back in the tournament as a four seed…it’s the first time in program history with back-to-back four seeds or higher in the tournament.”
The 2024 NCAA tournament kicked off for the Crimson Tide as they took on the Charleston Cougars. Much like the majority of Alabama’s wins this season, they found a way to outshoot their opponents to run up the score and flat-out outscore their opponents on the way to a win. This was the case against Charleston.
The Tide shot 60% from the field and 56.5% from three-point range. They won against Charleston 109-96 making it the ninth time they scored 100+ points in a game. All-SEC first team guard Mark Sears led the way in scoring with 30 points on a scary accurate 69.2% shooting from the field. His shooting was the catalyst for the Crimson Tide’s big-time shooting night and his ability to score and leadership would be a common theme for Alabama’s success this tournament.
Electric 🔋🔋 https://t.co/cbLJUY9vwt
— Mark Sears (@imcsears) February 22, 2024
Alabama’s second round matchup had them playing Grand Canyon who just had an upset win over the West Coast Conference champion Saint Mary’s Gaels. The Tide had a handful to worry about as well in Tyon Grant-Foster. He had 22 points and 7 rebounds in the first round against Saint Mary’s. He was a 20-point-per-game scorer throughout the season and was the WAC player of the year.
Grant-Foster had a great game against Alabama once again. He finished with 29 points and kept the game very close. But, Alabama’s suffocating perimeter defense and ability to keep any other Grand Canyon player from scoring was very key for them in a 71-62 win over the Antelopes.
No other Grand Canyon player had more than eight points besides Grant-Foster and the Antelopes shot a measly 10% from three-point range. The Crimson Tide is a team not known for their defense, but against Grand Canyon, it was a big-time factor to a sweet sixteen birth.
Roll Tide Into Sweet Sixteen
The biggest game of the season was waiting for Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen as they faced off with the number one seed North Carolina Tar Heels. They got a more unlikely hero in the game against the Heels. Up until now, Sears had been the scoring catalyst for the Tide but it was the senior forward Grant Nelson who came through against North Carolina.
Nelson finished with a double-double consisting of 24 points and 12 rebounds. It tied a season-high in points that came during Alabama’s first game of the season against Morehead State. He was the hero with big shots down the stretch to keep pace with the Tar Heels and get a big 89-87 sweet sixteen win to get Alabama to just its second elite 8 in program history.
As for the rest of the team, it was really the same kind of story as the first round win over Charleston when it came to lights out shooting. The Tide shot 47.8% from the field and a very impressive 42.3% from three. Nelson and sophomore guard Rylan Griffen went a combined 7-10 from beyond the arc.
The Elite 8 matchup had the Crimson Tide facing the Clemson Tigers who were another upstart tournament squad. Clemson had just knocked off the number two seed in the region in Arizona. The Tigers got the better of Alabama in the regular season 85-77. However, this time around, the result would be different.
It was once again great shooting by the Crimson Tide that allowed them to break away from Clemson. They shot 46.8% from the field and were highly efficient again from three at a 44.4% mark. Sears led the way again for his team with 23 points and seven three-pointers. That was the difference as the Tigers were just 30.8% from three in an 89-82 win for Alabama.
Alabama Advances to First Ever Final Four
Hard work is 𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐟𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝.@imcsears | @MarchMadnessMBB pic.twitter.com/46NTaoE7cB
— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) April 1, 2024
Thus, Alabama has made it to their program’s first Final Four ever. The next game they play will be in Phoenix in a national semi-final against the reigning national champion UConn Huskies. Tip-off for the game will be on Saturday, April 6th inside of State Farm Stadium at 8:49 p.m. E.T. The game will be televised on TBS.
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