Alabama basketball has a half-game lead atop the SEC standings, a margin that is nowhere close to comfortable for Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats and company. Oats continued to brush off any speculation about the postseason, including the NCAA Tournament Selection Committee’s planned release of its top 16 seeds, which will occur during the first half of Alabama’s clash against Texas A&M on Saturday.

“You have four weeks until Selection Sunday,” Oats said. “Wherever we end up being, and I would assume that we'd be somewhere in at (top) 16, we still got a month of basketball left before Selection Sunday… I'll find out after the game and I won't be focused on that too much."

Alabama (17-7, 9-2 SEC) is currently projected as a No. 3 seed and the No. 10 team overall, according to ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Oats understands that a lot can change with seven games remaining, especially if Alabama starts its final run to the SEC tournament with a home loss.

After two straight road games and a week’s rest, the Crimson Tide remain in a position to capture what would be a surprising second-straight conference title. The Aggies, however, know a thing or two about playing spoiler for Alabama. Texas A&M is the only team that Oats has a sub-.500 record against. The Crimson Tide is 1-3 against Texas A&M during his tenure.

The Aggies went from hot to cold in their last two games, having blown past No. 8 Tennessee 85-69 on Feb. 10, before losing at the buzzer to Ezra Manjon and Vanderbilt in its most recent game. Hungry for a bounceback performance, Texas A&M will give Alabama everything it has. The Volunteers learned that the hard way and the Crimson Tide will suffer the same fate if it plays sloppy and fails to execute its strategy against a hard-nosed, tough Aggies' side in need of a resume-boosting win.

Here's everything you need to know about the Crimson Tide’s clash with the Aggies.

Who: No. 15 Alabama (17-7, 9-2 SEC) vs. Texas A&M (15-9, 6-5)

When: 11 a.m. CT, Saturday, Feb. 17

Where: Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Watch: ESPN (play-by-play: Tom Hart; analyst: Jimmy Dykes)

Listen: (Play-by-play: Chris Stewart; Analyst: Bryan Passink; Sideline reporter: Roger Hoover; Engineer: Tom Stipe)

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

Stats: 20.5 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 4.0 apg 51.3% FG, 44.4% 3-pt

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

Stats: 12.9 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 4.0 apg, 44.0% FG, 34.6% 3-pt

Latrell Wrightsell Jr.: 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, senior

Stats: 8.7 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 41.3% FG 44.2% 3-pt

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

Stats: 11.0 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 1.9 apg, 48.6% FG, 40.7% 3-pt

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

Stats: 12.0 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.8 apg, 46.7% FG, 26.2% 3-pt

Wade Taylor IV: 6-feet, 175 pounds, Junior

Stats: 19.8 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.7 apg, 37.4% FG, 31.0% 3-pt

Tyrece Radford: 6-foot-3, 190 pounds, Graduate Student

Stats: 8.0 ppg, 2.2 rpg, 1.5 apg, 41.7% FG, 37.3% 3-pt

Jace Carter: 6-foot-6, 220 pounds, Junior

Stats: 7.0 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 0.8 apg, 33.3% FG, 23.5% 3-pt

Solomon Washington: 6-foot-7, 220 pounds, Sophomore

Stats: 5.8 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 0.9 apg, 45.9% FG, 26.5% 3-pt

Wildens Leveque: 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, Graduate Student

Stats: 1.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 0.1 apg, 30.2% FG, 88.9% FT

Alabama had a chance to catch its breath after its opening 11 conference games. The Crimson Tide did not play a midweek game following its win over LSU last Saturday. Oats said the extra rest was beneficial for his players to refocus and continue working on the team's defensive game plan.

“I thought (today) was one of our better practices,” Oats said. “We got some guys more focused on defense, playing harder on defense. We were able to work on a few different things defensively, not all of them directly apply to this game, but just some of the overall intensity and attention to detail and focus on defense I think has been better.”

Oats said he thought almost every player on the team had their best practice of the year at some point this week. He was also able to switch the schedule for his players. Alabama practiced hard Monday and Tuesday but had Wednesday completely off. The Tide then practiced lighter Thursday and Friday in order to preserve energy for another early tip off.

“We want to make sure that guys are fresh,” Oats said. “But it also gives you a week to (be) able to focus on some special situation type stuff, and whatever you may be struggling with, when you got a week between games, you can kind of focus on that.”

With no midweek game to bridge the gap between LSU and Texas A&M, Alabama was also able to build up the hype and introduce a new uniform that it will wear Saturday. Alabama is honoring its roots with a new design that features block "Crimson Tide" lettering and a "block A" Alabama logo on the shorts.

"The uniforms look great,” Oats said. “It's kind of nice to have an alternative uniform to play in. I think the guys are excited about them. It's not gonna have anything to do with whether we win or lose the game, but it is nice to honor some teams that have won here in the past."

The throwback pays homage to the 2003-04 Crimson Tide team that went to the Elite Eight, which remains the furthest point an Alabama team has advanced in the Big Dance. The team's achievement will be recognized Saturday, as this season’s Crimson Tide squad looks to keep itself on a similar path with fresh legs and a fresh look.

How Alabama guards the perimeter Saturday will be a big indicator if the Crimson Tide truly benefited from its week off.

Texas A&M primarily runs its offense through talented guards Wade Taylor IV and Tyrece Radford. The pair average 19.8 and 15.1 points per game respectively. Only one other Aggies player is averaging double figures.

“The backcourt is one of the best backcourts in the country with Taylor and Radford,” Oats said. "When you look at what (Taylor) does against top 25 teams, he's averaging over 27 points a game against teams ranked in the top 25. He's got three 30-point games against ranked teams this year. He seems like he's stepped up in big games. Radford's been big, but two of those guys together have really accounted for almost half (of) this team's points.”

Oats said it’s likely Taylor and Radford could still have good scoring outings against Alabama due to the volume of shots they take. A big game from Taylor in particular can still yield a positive result for the Tide. When Taylor went for 41 points against Arkansas, he took 32 shots and the Razorbacks won the game 78-77. When Taylor had 30 points against Ole Miss, he had 20 shots attempts and the Rebels walked away with a three-point victory.

Texas A&M allows Taylor and Radford to take so many shots due to its ability to grab offensive rebounds and create a lot of its scoring from second-chance opportunities. The Aggies average 17.67 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks No. 1 in the country. Forward Anderson Garcia leads the SEC with 9.1 rebounds per game.

“I love watching him play,” Oats said of Garcia. “He's tough, he's physical, he plays hard. Our guys are gonna have to really man up, try to keep them off the glass. With the way we've been starting with the four guards, we may have to make some adjustments and go bigger if they can't get it done keeping them off the glass.”

Not only will Alabama’s guards be tasked with making life difficult for a pair of opposition guards that have the green light at all times, but the Tide will also need to finish defensive possessions. An explosive game from Taylor or Radford can be overcome due to Texas A&M’s playstyle. But if both players are given open looks and Alabama is too casual dealing with misses, the Aggies certainly have the capability of ending Alabama’s 14-game SEC home winning streak.

Since head coach Nate Oats arrived at Alabama in 2019-20, the Crimson Tide has won a league-best 58 SEC contests.

Alabama has scored 100 points in nine SEC games during Oats’ tenure. The rest of the league has a combined 10 100-point games during that span.

Over the last five seasons, the Crimson Tide has posted nine games converting 18 or more three-pointers in a game, the rest of the SEC has a combined four games during that span.

According to KenPom, Mark Sears ranks No. 6 in the National Player of the Year standings.

Sears is one of four Division I players and the only Power 5 player who has 465 points, 95 rebounds, 90 assists and 50 three-pointers this season.

Sears has recorded 20-points or more in 15 games this season, surpassing Brandon Miller (2022-23) and Retin Obasohan’s (2015-16) 14 games and is the most since Collin Sexton in 2017-18 (16 games)

Sears ranks No. 1 in the SEC in scoring (20.5 ppg), No. 6 in field goal percentage (51.3) and No. 8 in assists (3.9 apg)

Sears (21.8 ppg) is one of four SEC players (Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, 26.0 ppg, Texas A&M’s Wade Taylor IV, 22.5 ppg and Kentucky’s Antonio Reeves, 20.1 ppg) that is averaging over 20 points per game during conference play.

The Crimson Tide owns the No. 1 scoring offense in the country (90.3 ppg) and the No. 1-ranked offense, according to KenPom.

Alabama is one of three schools (Purdue and Wright State) in the country that has two players on its current.

roster that has scored at least 1,700 points throughout their career in Sears (1,845 points) and Estrada (1,783 points).