How to watch: Alabama Crimson Tide basketball vs. Texas A&M

Alabama basketball sits squarely on the NCAA Tournament bubble as it heads into the final six games of the regular season. The Crimson Tide (14-11, 6-6 in the SEC) is No. 36 in the NET rankings after its 88-82 win over LSU over the weekend. However, Alabama is still one of the first four teams out in ESPN analyst Joe Lunardi’s projected bracket.

Next up for the Crimson Tide will be a home date against Texas A&M (12-12, 6-6) on Wednesday. The Aggies enter the matchup following a 74-69 win over Georgia. Here’s all the information you need to know about Wednesday’s game.

Free-30-Days To BamaInsider.com

Who: Alabama (14-11, 6-6 in the SEC) vs Texas A&M (12-12, 6-6 SEC)

When: 6 p.m. CT, Wednesday, Feb. 19

Where: Coleman Coliseum

Watch: SEC Network (play-by-play: Mike Morgan; analyst: Jon Sunvold)

Radio: Crimson Tide Sports Network (play-by-play: Chris Stewart; analyst: Bryan Passink)

Kira Lewis Jr.: 6-foot-3, 165 pounds, sophomore

Stats: 17.5 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 5.0 apg, 44.9% FG, 33.6% 3-pt

Jaden Shackelford: 6-foot-3, 195 pounds, freshman

Stats: 14.3 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 1.4 apg, 40.2% FG, 35.3% 3-pt

John Petty Jr.: 6-foot-5, 184 pounds, junior

Stats: 15.2 ppg., 7.1 rpg, 2.5 apg, 46.8% FG, 44.7% 3-pt

Herbert Jones: 6-foot-7, 205 pounds, junior

Stats: 9.2 ppg., 6.7 rpg, 2.6 apg, 47.2% FG, 7.1% 3-pt

Alex Reese: 6-foot-9, 245 pounds, junior

Stats: 9.6 ppg, 4.6, rpg, 1.1 apg, 41.3% FG, 32.4% 3-pt

Wendell Mitchell: 6-foot-3, 183 pounds, senior

Stats: 8.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.5 apg, 27.9% FG, 24.5 % 3-pt

Andre Gordon: 6-foot-2, 185 pounds, freshman

Stats: 7.5 ppg, 2.4 rpg, 1.6 apg, 35.8% FG, 26.5% 3-pt

Savion Flagg: 6-foot-7, 223 pounds, junior

Stats: 9.7 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 2.5 apg, 38.9% FG, 30.4% 3-pt

Emanuel Miller: 6-foot-7, 213 pounds, freshman

Stats: 6.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 0.7 apg, 43.7% FG, 16.7% 3-pt

Josh Nebo: 6-foot-9, 245 pounds, senior

Stats: 11.4 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 0.7 apg, 67.6% FG

— Looking to make a final push for an NCAA Tournament bid, Nate Oats challenged his team to go on a “three-week sprint” to close out the regular season. The Alabama head coach reminded his players that Auburn was 6-6 in league play last year before ultimately going on a run to win the SEC Tournament and reach the Final Four. While Oats isn’t expecting an exact result from his team he feels the Crimson Tide can make a similar run.

“Why can’t we do the same thing?” Oats said. “The way the schedule’s set up, they’re all losable games we’re playing, but they’re all winnable games, too. Every last one of our last six games are winnable games, and if we don’t play well, they’re losable games. Let’s get ourselves locked in.”

— Oats was asked how many wins he feels Alabama needs to secure a tournament berth. He guesstimated that it would most likely take 18 or 19 but said that it could depend on how some of the Crimson Tide’s opponents shake out down the stretch. For now, though, the head coach said he wasn’t concerning his team with hypotheticals.

“We’re going to control what we can control,” Oats said. “We’re going to try to win as many as we can these last six, and then you’ve got to go to Nashville and win as many as you can there.”

— For the first time in school history, Alabama swept weekly conference honors as Kira Lewis Jr. was named SEC Player of the Week while Jaden Shackelford earned SEC Freshman of the Week.

Lewis averaged 18.5 points, 8.5 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 2.33 steals in games against No. 11 Auburn and No. 25 LSU. He became just the second Crimson Tide player in history to record a triple-double when he tallied 10 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists in an overtime loss at Auburn.

Shackelford averaged 27 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists while shooting 40 percent (12 of 30) from beyond the arc in his two games last week. The lefty sharp-shooter matched a season-high 28 points and eight rebounds against Auburn before dropping 26 points on 9 of 18 shooting from the floor against LSU. He was also named National Freshman of the Week by the U.S. Basketball Writers Association.

— Wednesday’s game will feature one of the nation’s fastest-paced teams against one of its slowest-paced attacks. Alabama ranks No. 3 in the nation averaging 75.8 possessions per 40 minutes while Texas A&M ranks No. 332 in the category averaging 64.6.

“They’re a heavy, heavy, heavy post-up team,” Oats said of Texas A&M. “(Josh) Neebo’s getting the bulk of that, but they’ll even post up some of their 3s, 4s. (Savion) Flagg posts, (Emanuel) Miller posts... They’re good in transition off their steals, and they're No. 1 in turning people over. If they don’t have a readily apparent transition opportunity, they’re going to walk it up, pounding the post, trying to beat you up.

“They’re a tough, hard-nosed team. We want to be tough and hard-nosed, but obviously we’re trying to run. We’re going to have to get stops. If we can get stops, I think we can run on them.”

— Texas A&M enters Wednesday’s game ranked second in the SEC allowing 64 points per game. The Aggies are 11-4 this season when holding opponents to 65 or fewer points. Alabama ranks second nationally averaging 83.2 points per game.

Contact Andrew Bone for all of your real estate needs; buyers, sellers, investors, developers. Property management; BoneHomeTours.com Call 205-531-5577 or click here