Alabama basketball is one of five teams to get off to a 2-0 start in SEC play. The Crimson Tide (13-2) took down Oklahoma and South Carolina and will now face its biggest test of the season on the road against No. 10 Texas A&M.

The Aggies (13-2, 2-0 SEC) steamrolled Texas in its conference opener, before surviving on the road against Oklahoma without star guard Wade Taylor IV, who missed the game with an injury. The Aggies will be without Taylor for a second straight game as he was listed as out on Texas A&M’s availability report released Friday night.

Though Texas A&M will be without Taylor, the Aggies have been one of the strongest teams in the SEC. Sixth-yeah coach Buzz Williams has led Texas A&M to the NCAA Tournament in each of the last two years and has the Aggies poised to challenge for the SEC regular season title along with Alabama this season.

With both teams poised for postseason success, the winner of Saturday’s matchup will gain a significant early victory in the race for the SEC title. Alabama is 14-11 all-time against Texas A&M and coach Nate Oats has navigated the Tide to victories in its last two matchups against Williams’ Aggies.

“They’ve got the third-longest win streak in the country and we’ve got the sixth or seventh-longest win streak in the country,” Oats told reporters Friday. “So it’s gonna be a good game. So it’s gonna be a good game. They’re one of the toughest teams in the country year in and year out. Buzz does an unbelievable job getting his guys to play hard.”

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Alabama’s matchup against Texas A&M.

Who: No. 5 Alabama (13-2, 2-0) vs. No. 10 Texas A&M (13-2, 2-0)

When: 7 p.m. CT, Saturday, Jan. 11

Where: Reed Arena, College Station, Texas

Watch: ESPN (Play-By-Play: Dave O'Brien, Analyst: Cory Alexander)

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

Mark Sears: 6-foot-1, 190 pounds, graduate

Stats: 18.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 4.5 apg, 40.6% FG, 35.2% 3-pt

Labaron Philon: 6-foot-4, 177 pounds, freshman

Stats: 12.3 ppg, 3.7 rpg, 3.8 apg, 52.9% FG, 29.2% 3-pt

Jarin Stevenson: 6-foot-11, 215 pounds, sophomore

Stats: 4.6 ppg, 3.3 rpg, 1.0 apg, 34.9% FG, 20.5% 3-pt

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

Stats: 12.6 ppg, 8.7 rpg, 1.9 apg, 54.8% FG, 27.3% 3-pt

Clifford Omoruyi: 6-foot-11, 250 pounds, graduate

Stats: 7.4 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 0.8 apg, 73.3% FG

Zhuric Phelps: 6-foot-4, 190 pounds, senior

Stats: 14.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 2.6 apg, 39.7% FG, 32.7% 3-pt

Manny Obaseki: 6-foot-4, 200 pounds, senior

Stats: 7.0 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 1.4 apg, 32.7% FG, 21.4% 3-pt

Hayden Hefner: 6-foot-6, 190 pounds, graduate

Stats: 5.6 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.7 apg, 46.7% FG, 35.0% 3-pt

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

Stats: 5.5 ppg, 6.3 rpg, 1.1 apg, 38.1% FG, 23.8% 3-pt

Henry Coleman III: 6-foot-8, 250 pounds, graduate student

Stats: 8.3 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 0.3 apg, 58.0% FG

Alabama’s second ranked matchup of SEC play features two of the strongest rebounding teams in the nation. Alabama enters Saturday ranked No. 3 in the country averaging 44.8 rebounds per game. Texas A&M is just six spots below the Tide at No. 9 and is the best offensive-rebounding team in the country, averaging 16.7 per contest. The Aggies have out-rebounded all but one team this season.

“I think it will be a large factor in this game because they’re No. 1 in the country in offensive rebounding rate,” Oats said. “I told our guys there’s no chance we’re getting 100% of our defensive rebounds. We don’t do that against teams that barely crash.”

Oats isn’t expecting a perfect performance on the glass from Alabama on Saturday despite the Tide’s strong play on the glass this season. Intense rebounding is a staple of the Aggies style and they will frequently send all five players to the ball after a miss. Texas A&M has three players ranked in the top 100 in offensive rebound rate among Division I players. Forward Henry Coleman III leads the team with 2.8 O-boards per game while Solomon Washington grabs 2.7 and leads the team with 6.3 total rebounds per contest.

In Oats’ eyes, Alabama can still come out victories if it gets at least 50% of its defensive rebound opportunities. He isn’t as focused on preventing Texas A&M from getting offensive rebounds entirely, but thinks Alabama can make up the difference on the offensive glass by staying locked defensively in on the Aggies' extra possessions.

“We can’t let them get 50% of them, but the ones that they do get, and they’re gonna get some because they do send five guys a lot, we still have to guard it out,” Oats said. “We can’t be so disappointed with ourselves that we just give up when we give up [an offensive rebound]. We gotta continue to guard. They don’t get points for O-boards, they get points for second-chance points. When we do give up an offensive rebound we just gotta guard it out and really guard.”

Alabama had a strong offensive showing against South Carolina, save for another woeful performance at the free throw line. The Tide shot just 50% from the charity stripe against the Gamecocks, which was a new low in a season where the free throw numbers have been far from where Oats would like them to be.

After the game, Oats focused on the Tide's only attempting 20 free throws as a team. Alabama has been one of the best teams at scoring at the rim this season, and Oats wants to see his players use their driving ability to earn more trips to the line. As far as the accuracy when players do earn free throw opportunities, Oats said Friday that the only solution is repetition.

“Outside of hiring a third party guy that I’m not sure if we need to do that or not — I’ve always said to the guys there’s obviously a mental side with free throws, for sure,” Oats said. “I played and one of my years, I think I was 90%-plus halfway through my freshman year and then you miss a few and miss one that costs your team a game or whatnot — all of a sudden you start overthinking it. So there’s a mental side to free throws that you’ve got to build confidence. But the best way to build confidence is just get in the gym and shoot a bunch. If you see 1,000 of them go through the net you’re gonna have confidence to step up like I make these, that’s what I do.”

The Tide could afford to leave points at the line against South Carolina, which looked overmatched from the opening tip Wednesday night. It won’t have that same luxury Saturday night against a gritty Aggies side that forces teams to earn every point they get. Texas A&M ranks No. 12 in the country in adjusted defensive efficiency and force 14.5 opponent turnovers per game.

Texas A&M’s defense, rebounding and ability to pull out close games will result in Alabama’s first SEC loss of the season if the Tide is wasteful with its opportunities at the line. The Tide has more than enough talent to contend with the Aggies but will suffer its first loss in conference play if it comes up empty as much as it did against the Gamecocks.

“We’ve been in the gym. We worked. We didn’t do anything live yesterday but we did shoot a lot of free throws, walked through some of their stuff. Guys have been in the gym shooting them on their own, but it’s something if we don’t fix it's gonna cost us a game because there’s plenty of games — I think KenPom’s got us losing this game by one — it would stink to lose a game by one and go 10 of 20 at the line like we did the last game.”

Mark Sears became the second player in program history with 1,500 points, 300 assists and 200 3 pointers in their Alabama career joining Brian Williams

Labaron Philon is the only freshman in the Southeastern Conference this season to be named SEC Freshman of the Week three times

Since the start of last season Alabama has scored 100 points or more in 14 games, which ranks No. 1 throughout Division I

Since Nate Oats arrived to Tuscaloosa in 2019-20, Alabama has won a league-best 64 games during SEC play

Alabama boats the No. 1 scoring offense in the country, averaging 90.9 points per game

Since 2004, Sears is the 33rd player in Division I history to have 59 career games scoring 20 points or more and currently the only active player in Division I

Sears is the only player in the SEC to rank in the top-four in both scoring (No. 4, 18.5 ppg) and assists (No. 4, 4.5 apg)

Two of the best rebounding teams in the country meet in College Station on Saturday as Alabama ranks No. 3 in Division I in rebounds per game (44.8 rpg) and Texas A&M is No. 9 (42.1 rpg)

Since the 2020-2021 season, Alabama has made 15 three-pointers in 22 contests, which ranks No. 1 in Division I

Alabama has won four straight AP Top-25 matchups for the first time since the 2017-18 season (won five straight)

Coach Oats has 22 AP Top-25 wins during his tenure at UA, which ranks second all-time in the program's history tied with Mark Gottfried and behind Wimp Sanderson (25 wins)

Alabama has scored 100 points or more in 93 games in program history, with Coach Oats' teams accounting for 27 percent of that number (25 games)

Coach Oats' 117 wins across his first five seasons at Alabama stands as the most wins in a five-year span in program history