Alabama basketball is one game from history.

The No. 4 seed Crimson Tide reached its first Elite Eight since 2004 when it took down No. 1 seed North Carolina 89-87 on Thursday, setting itself up for a chance to make the Final Four for the first time ever.

Standing in its way is a team Alabama played earlier this season, No. 6 seed Clemson. The Tigers also pulled off an upset in their Sweet 16 game. They defeated No. 2 seed Arizona 77-72.

Clemson also has just one previous Elite Eight appearance and no Final Four to its name. The only way for the stakes to be higher in the rematch between the Tide and Tigers would be if it took place in Phoenix, Arizona. Instead, the winner Saturday will not only book its place at that Final Four, but make history for their respective school. Clemson will be looting to imitate its 85-77 victory inside Coleman Coliseum, while Alabama is looking for revenge on the highest stage.

“I think as us being competitors, there's definitely a revenge factor,” Aaron Estrada said. “Nobody wants to lose to a team twice, especially who you think you can beat. So I think that's just going to add even more fuel to us, and it's going to make us play harder.”

Alabama’s players showed they had no interest in allowing their season to end against North Carolina. The Crimson Tide ground out its biggest win of the season for a chance to earn another one. Alabama coach Nate Oats doesn’t want to see his side get complacent and spoil a chance to continue Alabama’s magical run in the Big Dance. He even borrowed an iconic phrase from Nick Saban to keep his players focused on the task at hand.

“I told my players -- Coach Saban calls it rat poison all the time,” Oats said. “If you wanted, you can get on your phone and look at social media and type your name in and see hundreds of people talking about how great you were. But it has nothing to do with preparing to play the next game. I told them, ‘if you want to get to a Final Four you've got to be disciplined enough to put that rat poison out, get locked in on what we need to do for the next 24 hours, be prepared to beat this team. Because anything else is a total distraction.’”

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Alabama’s matchup with Clemson.

Who: No. 4 seed Alabama (24-11, 13-5 SEC) vs. No. 6 seed Clemson (24-11, 11-9 ACC)

When: 7:49 p.m. CT, Saturday, March 30

Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles, California

Watch: TBS (Play-By-Play: Brian Anderson, Analyst: Jim Jackson, Sideline: Allie LaForce)

Listen: Crimson Tide Sports Network | SIRIUS/XM 134/201 (Play-By-Play: Chris Stewart, Analyst: Bryan Passink, Engineer: Tom Stipe)

Mark Sears: 6-foot-1, 185 pounds, junior

Stats: 21.4 ppg, 4.2 rpg, 4.1 apg, 50.6% FG, 42.9% 3-pt

Aaron Estrada: 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Graduate Student

Stats: 13.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 4.7 apg, 45.5% FG, 30.7% 3-pt

Rylan Griffen: 6-foot-6, 190 pounds, sophomore

Stats: 11.2 ppg, 3.4 rpg, 1.8 apg, 45.1% FG, 38.8% 3-pt

Grant Nelson: 6-foot-11, 230 pounds, senior

Stats: 11.8 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.5 apg, 49.1% FG, 27.9% 3-pt

Nick Pringle: 6-foot-10, 230 pounds, senior

Stats: 6.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 0.6 apg, 63.1% FG, 53.8% FT

Joseph Girard III: 6-foot-2, 189 pounds, graduate student

Stats: 15.0 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 2.9 apg, 42.6% FG, 41.0% 3-pt

Chase Hunter: 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, senior

Stats: 12.9 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 3.1 apg, 42.3% FG, 31.7% 3-pt

Ian Schieffelin: 6-foot-8, 238 pounds, junior

Stats: 9.9 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 2.2 apg, 56.5% FG, 48.9% 3-pt

Jack Clark: 6-foot-10, 207 pounds, graduate student

Stats: 4.6 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.4 apg, 39.6% FG, 29.4% 3-pt

PJ Hall: 6-foot-10, 238 pounds, senior

Stats: 18.4 ppg, 6.5 rpg, 1.4 apg, 49.0% FG, 31.7% 3-pt

Alabama’s recent history facing North Carolina stars R.J. Davis and Armando Bacot, helped Oats game plan for the two stars Thursday.

Saturday, the Tide is facing a team it has even more familiarity with having faced the Tigers in nonconference play. But that familiarly on both ends runs deeper for a pair of forwards who will matchup Saturday.

Alabama forward Nick Pringle and Clemson’s PJ Hall both hail from South Carolina, and spent time playing against each other in different camps growing up.

“I’m not gonna lie, P.J. killed me in a couple camps,” Pringle said with a smile. “It’s exciting just to see him, to see our growth and to see where we are now, two South Carolina guys, didn’t really come from much but we’re both here we’re still fighting. I’m just ready to compete with him and see who [gets] the best of it.”

Hall got the better of Pringle and the Crimson Tide in the first matchup, logging 21 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. Though Pringle came off the bench in that game, should Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. miss a second straight game with a head injury, Pringle will likely be in the starting lineup and matchup with Hall from the opening tip Saturday.

While the duo will be competing hard on college basketball’s brightest stage, there remains a mutual respect between the two forwards. They stay in contact on social media and Hall has paid close attention to Pringle’s winding journey to Alabama.

“Whenever you’re wanting to be recruited and you’re not getting recruited [and] you feel like you’re good enough to be recruited your confidence can be low,” Hall said. “So he ends up at Wofford, which is right down the street from my house, it’s like 15 minutes from there. Seeing him get there, have confidence there and then have the confidence to take the JUCO route as well. That’s not easy. That’s not an easy step and then fighting to get to a spot like Alabama is incredible.”

Having gone from competitors at high school camps to duking it out on the biggest stage, Hall and Pringle will both try and use their familiarity to their advantage Saturday. It will be no easy feat for Pringle and the rest of the Crimson Tide frontcourt. As Alabama saw fristhand Hall is one of the best forwards in the country, averaging stats and earning first-team All-ACC honors as a fourth-year veteran for the Tigers. Alabama did well against UNC’s size. Despite nursing foot injury Pringle and company will need to be up to the task against another outstanding forward from the ACC.

“We didn't handle their physicality well,” Oats said of the first matchup against Clemson. “I think we're playing better, handling physicality more. North Carolina was a physical team. I thought we did a good job handling that one.”

While Hall is certainly a capable inside presence, what’s helped carry Clemson to the Elite Eight has been its balanced attack. The Tigers play a much slower pace than Alabama, but can easily turn to deep threats when it’s not getting easy looks at the rim.

In the first matchup, Clemson shot 11-for-21 from 3-point range. Three players — Hall, Chase Hunter and Joseph Girard — all made at least three 3s.

“They were way too comfortable shooting it,” Oats said. “They shot over 50 percent from 3 when we played them at our place. And particularly in the second half they were 8 of 11. We've got to do a better job with their shooters. I thought we did a good job last night with Carolina's shooters, making sure their main shooters didn't get loose for free 3s.”

Alabama has taken pride in its defnese during its toruanment run so far. It’s been particularly successful at making stops in the clutch to prevent late leads from slipping away. That wasn’t the case back in November. Six of Clemson’s 11 triples all came in the last 10 minutes of the game.

Since then Alabama has learned. It’s taken gut punches against good teams but seems to have turned the corner when it comes to defending in the clutch. Against Grand Canyon, the Tide didn’t allow a point in the final four minutes of the game. Grant Nelson made a strong individual defensive play with a block against Davis when North Carolina was searching for points late. Nelson attributed the Crimson Tide’s newfound defneisve identity to the struggles it faced against quality early in the year.

“I think all the preparation up to this point, especially our non-conference schedule had a big part of that,” Nelson said. “We scheduled playing against some of the best bigs and best guards in the nation. I think even though we lost those games [to Purdue, Creighton and Arizona], we learned a lot. And I think like this is the best time of the year we can come together, and we have these past two games.”

In order to avoid the same fate it suffered against the Tigers in Tuscaloosa, Alabama will have to translate that same energy into preventing Clemson from getting hot late. Both teams will have studied up how to counter each other’s punches, meaning it will also be crucial for Alabama to shoot the 3 well against Clemson’s defense. In their last two games, the Tigers held Arizona to just 17.9% from beyond the arc and No. 3 seed Baylor to just 25.0%.

When Alabama took down Grand Canyon, Mouhamed Dioubate stole the headlines with an impressive display in the final minutes. Against UNC it was Nelson who stepped up massively on both ends, playing his best game in an Alabama uniform and showing off his explosive versatility.

Alabama will need more than just one breakout star to take down the Tigers, but the last two games begs the question: Who will be ‘the guy’ for the Crimson Tide on Saturday.

“If it’s not going to be my night or somebody else’s night, you never know who’s night it’s gonna be,” Sears said. “When it’s their night, I’m going to do my job of finding which guy it is and make sure to keep going to them.”

Sears has certainly been the guy for Alabama the most. His consistent scoring has carried the Crimson Tide all season and his ability to self create at a high level will be relied upon yet again to lift Alabama to its first Final Four. In addition to Sears, three of Alabama’s other mainstay starters — Nelson, Estrada and Rylan Griffen — all had strong performances against UNC that could be followed up by Elite Eight heroics. Griffen in particular looked comfortable hitting big shots from beyond the arc.

An out-of-nowhere bench performance could also be what puts Alabama over the top Saturday. Dioubate and Mohamed Wague both put in strong shifts in the NCAA Tournament. Freshman Sam Walters had one of the best showings from a reserve player all season when he hit four 3s in Alabama’s win over Florida on Feb. 21. Walters was also relied upon in a few late-game situations against North Carolina.

“I was just trying to do what the coach was telling me to do,” Walters said. “I don’t really try to worry about any of the bad things that can happen. If you do that you will mess yourself up and get super nervous. So I just tried to focus on what the game plan was.”

It will likely have to be a combination of everyone playing their best game in yet another win-or-go-home and more notably, a legacy game for Alabama. With so many of Alabama’s players who have seemingly found their stride at the same time, the Crimson Tide has a plethora of options for who could potentially steal the show. Whoever does it will immortalize not just himself, but the 2023-24 Alabama basketball team with a historic first Final Four appearance.

Alabama advanced to the program’s second Elite 8 and first since 2004 following its win over No. 1 seed North Carolina in Thursday night’s Sweet 16

Alabama has won seven NCAA Tournament games in the last four seasons under head coach Nate Oats. Prior to Oats’ arrival, the Tide won seven NCAA Tournament games over the previous 26 seasons

Oats is 13-5 (.722) in his 18 postseason games at the helm of the Crimson Tide

Oats has a record of 7-3 in NCAA Tournament games as the head coach at Alabama, which include a trio of Sweet 16 appearances and owns a 7-6 (.538) record across his six previous tournament appearances as a head coach (11-9 overall)

The Crimson Tide has made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time since 2003-06

Grant Nelson became the first player since Kevin Love (UCLA) in 2008 and the first SEC player since Joakim Noah (Florida) in 2006 to post at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 5 blocks in an NCAA Tournament game

Mark Sears was named to the Sporting News All-America Second Team, becoming the third UA player under Oats to earn Sporting News All-America honors, joining Brandon Miller (Second Team, 2023) and Herbert Jones (Third Team, 2021)

During the NCAA Tournament, Sears is averaging 24.7 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.3 assists per game while shooting 53.3 percent from the field, 41.7 percent from three-point range and 84.2 percent from the free-throw line

Sears has scored 750 points this season, which set a program record for most points scored by a UA player in a single season, p[assing Reggie King (747 points in 1979)

Sears is one the only Division I player that has 750 points, 145 rebounds, 140 assists and 85 three-pointers this season and one of six players in the last 31 years to reach the milestone

Sears has now scored 20-or-more points in 24 games this season, breaking Reggie King’s school record (23 games) set in 1978-79 for most by an Alabama player