There’s no room left for error in No. 6 Alabama basketball’s remaining schedule. The Crimson Tide faces three opponents ranked in the top five of the AP Poll to close out the regular season. The final stretch starts with a road matchup against No. 5 Tennessee on Saturday, followed by a game against No. 3 Florida and a rematch against No. 1 Auburn.

While Alabama coach Nate Oats has had this portion of Alabama’s calendar circled, all of the focus will be on stopping a talented Tennessee outfit graded as the best defense in the country. The Volunteers have more than enough capable players on offense to balance its defensive prowess and get the job done inside Thompson-Boling Arena.

Fortunately for Alabama, it’s had just one slip-up on the road in SEC play and recovered from that stumble with back-to-back home wins over Kentucky and Mississippi State. Many of its players hit their stride in the eyes of their coach in both games, which is a good sign for Alabama’s chances in its upcoming high-stakes matchup.

“Looking forward to seeing how our group responds,” Oats told reporters Friday. “I think we’ve been playing better here lately. I think we’re getting our legs back up under us. [Chris] Youngblood’s getting more comfortable making shots. I think Cliff [Omoruyi] is starting to play his best basketball. We’ve got a lot of guys playing their best basketball of the year right now.”

Ahead of Alabama is a difficult, defensive test in Tennessee, a side that has stifled the most high-powered Oats-led offenses before. Offensively, the Volunteers are led by the best distributor in the SEC, who will challenge the Tide on both ends and allow Tennessee to run rampant if Alabama is unable to meet that challenge.

Alabama can’t get ahead of itself. But if the Tide can navigate its latest tough test, it will put itself in a good position to navigate the next two and, most importantly, continue proving it deserves a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s game.

Who: No. 6 Alabama (23-5, 12-3 SEC) vs. No. 5 Tennessee (23-5, 10-5)

When: 3 p.m. CT, Saturday, March 1

Where: Thompson-Boling Arena, Knoxville, Tennessee

Watch: ESPN (Play-By-Play: Karl Ravech, Analyst: Jimmy Dykes, Analyst: Dick Vitale)

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: 19.0 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 5.0 apg, 41.0% FG, 35.7% 3-pt

Chris Youngblood: 6-foot-4, 177 pounds, freshman

Stats: 10.6 ppg, 2.5 rpg, 1.0 apg, 44.5% FG, 38.9% 3-pt

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

Stats: 10.4 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 3.5 apg, 46.0% FG, 29.3% 3-pt

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

Stats: 12.0 ppg, 7.9 rpg, 1.7 apg, 54.0% FG, 25.7% 3-pt

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

Stats: 7.1 ppg, 6.8 rpg, 0.8 apg, 73.8% FG

Zakai Zeigler: 5-foot-9, 172 pounds, senior

Stats: 13.6 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 7.3 apg, 40.3% FG, 32.2% 3-pt

Jahmai Mashack: 6-foot-4, 202 pounds, senior

Stats: 5.8 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.4 apg, 45.9% FG, 35.9% 3-pt

Chaz Lanier: 6-foot-5, 207 pounds, fifth-year

Stats: 17.8 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 1.0 apg, 42.5% FG, 41.3% 3-pt

Igor Milicic Jr.: 6-foot-10, 225 pounds, senior

Stats: 10.4 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 2.3 apg, 47.6% FG, 31.2% 3-pt

Felix Okpara: 6-foot-11, 235 pounds, junior

Stats: 7.7 ppg, 6.4 rpg, 0.4 apg, 60.7% FG

Oats gave a fitting description of the Vols defensive juggernaut, saying they’re “as typical of a Tennessee team since I’ve been in the league.” He speaks from plenty of experience trying to figure out how to score against Tennessee coach Rick Barnes’ typically-stout defensive units. The Tide has never scored above 74 points against the Volunteers since Oats has taken over. Even in his three wins over Tennessee, the Volunteers have been able to limit an explosive outing on offense.

“Even in games we’ve won, it hasn’t necessarily been high-scoring affairs,” Oats said. “They’re physical. They get into you. They make cutting hard. They guard the ball well. We like to get in the paint, draw help, spray the ball. They don’t necessarily need to help all the time because they’re so physical on the ball and our off-ball cutting — they just kind of stand you up. They’ve got the No. 1 defense in the country this year and they’re usually top-five in the country every year.”

Tennessee has yet again earned the honor of the nation’s top defensive team by frustrating nearly every opponent it’s faced this season. The Vols give up an NCAA-best 87.5 per 100 possessions or 0.87 points per possession, according to KenPom.com. Teams are averaging just 60.8 points per game against them this season, which ranks fifth in the country. Shots teams generate on all three levels are typically contested. Tennessee ranks No. 3 in opponent 3-point field goal percentage and No. 4 in block percentage this season.

Alabama’s 111-point mark against Mississippi State came thanks to some excellent ball movement, which saw the Tide rack up 28 assists with just 11 turnovers. That kind of offensive flow will be hard to generate against Tennessee’s physicality, but creating and hitting clean shots, particularly at the rim, will be crucial if Alabama wants to get over the 75-point threshold and walk out of Thompson-Boiling Arena with a victory.

On the offensive end, Tennessee is powered by one of the most experienced guards and the best playmaker in the SEC. Senior Zakai Zeigler has been a double-digit scorer in three of his four seasons in Knoxville but makes the most impact on games as a playmaker.

Zeigler averages 7.3 assists per game, which leads the SEC, while he also ranks No. 9 in the country and No. 1 in the conference in assist rate, according to KenPom. As a team, Tennessee ranks No. 5 in the SEC in assists per game at 15.5, meaning Zeigler is responsible for just over 47% of his team’s assists.

Alabama showed it could defend a team’s best player, containing Kentucky’s Otega Oweh and Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard in its last two games. While Zeigler isn’t quite at the same level in the scoring department, he’s certainly capable of creating his own shot, and his ability as a playmaker adds another layer for Alabama to contend with on defense.

“On offense, you’ve gotta do a really good job staying in front of him,” Oats said. “If he’s blowing by people, he finds everybody on the assists. He’s also scoring the ball — I think he’s averaging over 18 [points] the last five games. So, him and Lainer are the two biggest keys on their offensive end.”

Zeigler is also a tenacious disruptor on defense, which makes an already tough cover all that more difficult for Alabama. The veteran helps power the Volunteers' No. 1-ranked defense by leading the team in steals with two per game. Zeigler ranks No. 92 in the country in steal percentage and does so without fouling, averaging just under two per game.

Taking care of the ball will be vital for Alabama to avoid giving away extra possessions against a team that already takes away easy looks on all three levels. The Tide managed to take Oweh and Hubbard out of the game early by baiting them into first-half fouls. But Zeigler’s ability on that end makes that strategy a risky one for Alabama on Saturday.

“If you try to attack him to get him in foul trouble because you want him out because he’s so good on offense, then all of a sudden you put yourself in some predicaments because he’s so quick on the ball and plays so hard [and] you might be turning the ball over,” Oats said. “So we gotta be smart with how we try to attack him depending on who he ends up guarding, but he’s one of the better players in this league and he’s been that way for a few years. So when you’re as good of a two-way guy as he is, it makes it difficult…

“Some of these really good offensive players, you just keep going at them because if they refuse to guard, you can get easy buckets or they foul and you can get them on the bench. Zeigler’s not really somebody you want to go at much because you end up getting a bad possession out of it or turning it over. So, try to keep him out of actions as much as possible when he’s on defense.”

— This will be the first Alabama-Tennessee matchup where both teams are ranked in the top-six in the AP Top 25 Poll

— Alabama has scored 85 points or more in nine straight road games, which is the longest single-season streak by any team in SEC history

— Sears is the only player in the SEC to rank in the top-five in both scoring (No. 2, 19.0 ppg) and assists (No. 2, 5.0 apg)

— With 829 DI victories, Rick Barnes is one shy of John Calipari for first among active coaches and for No. 10 all-time. His 110 SEC wins tie Don DeVoe for the No. 19 spot.

— Zakai Zeigler has 197 assists this year, putting him three shy of the fifth 200-assist campaign in UT history, including his second. His 1,420 career points also put him 12 away from a top-20 spot on the Volunteers' all-time list.

— The Vols are 7-1 all-time in home AP top-10 matchups. That includes a 4-0 mark at Thompson-Boling Arena, all under Rick Barnes, with each win by nine-plus points. Tennessee went 3-1 vs. top-10 teams at Stokely Athletics Center.