Alabama basketball is heading into the 2024 NCAA Tournament hoping not to be the latest victim of a Cinderella story. The Crimson Tide limped into the Big Dance after losing three of its final four games but still earned a No. 4 seed thanks to earlier marquee wins in SEC play and avoiding any losses to NET Quad 3 and Quad 4 teams.

Despite a favorable seed, Alabama’s recent momentum and defensive struggles have made it a popular Round of 64 upset candidate when it faces No. 13 seed Charleston on Friday in Spokane, Washington.

The Cougars are coming into the contest having rattled off 12 straight wins, securing both the Coastal Athletic Association regular season and tournament titles. Charleston is one of the hottest teams entering the NCAA Tournament while the Crimson Tide is on one of the worst skids of any team in the field of 68.

Alabama coach Nate Oats understands the upset-potential feeling that both Charleston and many amateur and “professional” bracketologists have ahead of Friday’s matchup. Oats was once in a similar position to what Charleston now finds itself in, having previously led a trendy mid-major team that pilled on wins before the Big Dance.

Before joining Alabama, Oats led Buffalo to a No. 13 seed in the 2018 NCAA Tournament in his third season. Like Charleston, the Bulls were on a similar hot streak, having won eight of their final nine games and securing a conference regular season and tournament title.

Oats turned that momentum into an eye-popping 89-68 win over No. 4 seed Arizona in the first round. The Bulls flat-out dominated the Wildcats in typical Oats fashion. They made 15 of 30 3-point attempts, had a pair of 20-point performances and outscored Arizona 49-30 in the second half. After the game, guard Wes Clark said the game plan was “getting in the lane and spraying the ball out so we can get some open 3s.” Sound familiar?

It was a victory that at the time served as a milestone for one of the nation’s brightest up-and-coming coaches. Six years later, the win now serves as a reference point for that once-up-and-coming coach to prevent his current team from suffering the same fate as the Wildcats.

“I've been on the other side of this,” Oats said. “I've been a 13 seed playing a No. 4 at Buffalo and came in and beat Arizona. So I've got a pretty good idea of the mindset of [Charleston] and they're hungry. I'm sure they can't wait to play us. They’re excited.”

Like Oats’ Buffalo teams, Charleston has earned its place as an upset contender by dominating its regular season foes for multiple seasons. A year ago, the Cougars went 31-4 and were ranked as high as No. 18 in the AP poll. They lost by just six points to eventual national runners-up San Diego State as a No. 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Just like Oats was when he knocked off Arizona, Charleston coach Pat Kelsey is in his third season on the job, hungry for a similar marquee win that helped take Oats’ career to new heights.

Fortunately for the Alabama headman, he’s not only been in Kelsey’s position but has made four trips to the tournament since that 2018 upset. That experience has allowed Oats to not only develop an approach to reset his own team’s momentum but also block out the buzz of Alabama’s high-flying first-round foe.

“This is a program that's been really good for the last two years under Coach Kelsey,” Oats said. “So we're not going to necessarily look at they’ve won 12 in a row, they’re on momentum. It’s the first game of a new season and who comes ready to play for 40 minutes in that first game?”

Oats isn’t treating the Cougars like an intriguing mid-major with a chance to pull off a shocker, but a foe that’s on equal footing with Alabama and has earned a right to play in a competition that’s hard to win no matter what team you face. But the Cougars have just as much of a reason to be excited by the matchup. They rank No. 58 in adjusted offensive efficiency according to KenPom. Charleston possesses the tools to exploit Alabama’s weaknesses and torment the Crimson Tide like other teams have in recent games.

“It's a decision some guys are going to have to make, like ‘how bad do I want to keep playing?’” Oats said. “Charleston's a really good offensive team. If we don't come out and guard, Charleston's gonna put some points up on us, and I don't like putting that much pressure on our offense every night out that we got to go score 100 points or whatever.”

Oats has made it clear that if Alabama plays defense for 40 minutes — a difficult task for this year’s Tide team — it can make it past the Cougars and maybe even into the second weekend. He’s also made clear that a win for Charleston won’t come out of nowhere. The Cougars are on a similar path that Buffalo took with Oats, competing with its own talented, offensive-minded head coach searching for a program-defining victory.

Oats once played the spoiler role, galvanizing his side to a magical win. Now he needs to motivate his team to play to its full potential on both ends and avoid being added to the ever-growing list of teams upset in the first round of March Madness. If Alabama can’t manage that, it could very well be Kelsey doing just what Oats did six years ago and fitting the slipper on the heel of the Cougars come Friday evening.