Tony's takes: Ranking Alabama's top five teams from the 2023/24 season
According to the astronomical calendar, summer won’t start for another 12 days. Good luck trying to tell that to anyone who spent more than 15 consecutive minutes in the Alabama sun this weekend.
I’ve celebrated the beginning of summer at different times throughout my life. As a kid, it occurred around the end of May when schools let out for summer break in Texas. During my college days, it was moved up to the beginning of May following the spring semester.
Since then I’ve used more unofficial ways to mark my own personal summer solstice. There’s the first day that I remember Summer Snow is open in Tuscaloosa and the first time someone convinces me to get sunburned at the pool. I’m also working on a metric centered around how quickly I get annoyed at my dog for taking too long to do his business during walks.
As far as this job is concerned, though, summer started this weekend following the NCAA outdoor track and field championships. With no sports remaining, the offseason has officially arrived for Alabama. We now have two months until the beginning of football’s preseason, and 82 days until the Crimson Tide kicks off against Western Kentucky.
Before we spend the next 12 weeks rattling off projections and preseason awards, I figured it would be nice to take one final look at how Alabama's athletic programs performed over the past nine months. In today’s column, I’ll begin the summer by ranking the Tide's top five teams from the 2023/24 season.
Pour yourself a drink and let's dive in.
Drink of the week — Gold rush
I was beginning to get worried. After starting off the weekend with runner-up finishes in the men’s 400-meter, men’s 400-meter hurdle, men’s 10,000-meter and women’s 10,000-meter, it was looking like Alabama would have to settle for silver at the NCAA outdoor track and field championships.
Fortunately for the Crimson Tide — and for my plans for the drink of the week — Doris Lemngole struck gold. Lemgole won the women’s national title in the 3,000-meter steeplechase, setting a collegiate record with a time of 9:15.24. The West Pokot County, Kenya, native is the first Alabama runner to win a championship in the event.
Today, we’re celebrating the achievement with one of my favorite summer cocktails, the Gold Rush. Unlike Lemngole’s rush for gold, which involved hurdling over pools of water, this drink doesn’t require much effort to make.
First, you’ll need two ounces of bourbon (our friends at Session use Old Forester), .75 ounces of lemon juice and .75 ounces of honey syrup (three parts honey to one part water). From there, shake over ice, strain into a rocks glass with fresh ice and enjoy.
Cheers!
(Commercial break: My drink of the week section is now sponsored by my friends at Session Cocktails in Tuscaloosa. Session has been a mainstay in Tuscaloosa’s cocktail scene since 2019 and offers some of the tastiest drinks in town. Stop by and tell them I said hi!)
Ranking Alabama’s top five teams from the 2023/24 season
Alabama didn’t end up with a team national title over the past year, but a trio of top-four finishes and a few unlikely playoff runs serve as a nice consolation prize for the Crimson Tide.
Alabama has 21 different scholarship sports. Originally, my plan was to rank all of them, but I chickened out over the thought of splitting hairs between the likes of rowing and volleyball.
After a few hours bravely spent navigating RollTide.com’s defunct content-management system, I’m confident I’ve found the right top five.
1 — Football
Record: 12-2
Accomplishments: SEC title, College Football Playoff appearance
Why they’re here: Time will tell what is in store for Alabama football now that Nick Saban has retired. Regardless, the legendary head coach’s final team tops my list. The Tide looked dead in the water following a Week 2 loss to Texas. From there, Saban pulled off arguably the greatest coaching performance of his career, leading his team to an SEC title over Georgia before falling to eventual national champion Michigan in the Rose Bowl. A comeback win over Tennessee and one of the most memorable Iron Bowl finishes in a victory at Auburn made the season that much sweeter for Alabama fans. The Tide’s rise from the ashes also brought about the LANK motto.
2 — Men’s basketball
Record: 25-12
Accomplishments: Fourth straight NCAA Tournament appearance, first Final Four appearance
Why they’re here: It was tempting to put Nate Oats’ squad at the No. 1 spot. This year’s Final Four run was one of the most memorable sporting events in the history of Alabama athletics.
The Tide entered the NCAA tournament with losses in four of its previous six games. Many projected No. 4 seed Alabama as a first-round upset to Charleston. Instead, the Tide blew out the Cougars before surviving a scrappy game against No. 12 seed Grand Canyon. A heroic performance from Grant Nelson led Alabama to an upset over No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Sweet 16. From there, the Tide earned its first Final Four appearance with a win over No. 6 seed Clemson. No one was stopping this year’s national champion UConn team. However, the Tide gave the Huskies their biggest test of the tournament in an 86-72 defeat.
Based on the talent Oats and his staff assembled this offseason, don't be surprised if this bunch takes the top spot next year.
3 — Men’s track and field
Accomplishments: Fourth in NCAA Outdoor Championships, tied for 15th in NCAA Indoor Championships, second in SEC Outdoor Championships
Why they’re here: Make that three top-four finishes for Alabama athletics this season. While the men’s track and field team didn’t get as much praise as the football or men’s basketball teams, its fourth-place finish at this weekend’s NCAA outdoor championships in Eugene, Oregon was its highest in program history. Alabama sprinters Samuel Ogazi (400m) and Chris Robinson (400-meter hurdles) and distance runner Victor Kiprop (10,000m) all finished as national runner-ups at their respective events. The Tide also finished second in the SEC outdoor championships last month.
4 — Gymnastics
Record: 12-4-1
Accomplishments: Reached NCAA semifinals, finished second in SEC, recorded a score of 198 or higher three separate times
Why they’re here: Alabama gymnastics would have been in contention to make a top-four of its own had it not fallen apart on the balance beam during the semifinals of the NCAA Championships. Still, the Tide secured its 41st top-10 finish in program history, finishing the season in eighth place. Lilly Hudson earned First Team All-America honors in the all-around, as well as second-team recognition on vault. Meanwhile, Luisa Blanco and Chloe LaCoursiere both earned second-team honors on uneven bars. Alabama recorded scores of 198 or higher in three different meets. It also became the first team to beat Florida on the road since 2019.
5 — Softball
Record: 39-20
Accomplishments: Women’s College World Series appearance
Why they’re here: Following Alabama’s season-ending loss to Florida in the Women’s College World Series, Patrick Murphy compared his 28th Crimson Tide team to making wine.
“When you're trying to make wine and you're stomping grapes and get to the bottom of the barrel, you have all these grapes at the bottom and you've worked hard and have gotten every ounce of juice out of them,” Murphy said. “That is this team. They squeezed every ounce out being a great teammate, being great leaders and being great representatives of the University of Alabama. They worked their butts off and got here, beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. It's been one of the most enjoyable teams to coach in my career."
This year’s Alabama softball team performed under its usual standards. The Crimson Tide (39-20, 10-14) suffered its first-ever losing season in SEC play, dropping all but one of its conference series. It struggled at the plate, ranking second-worst in the SEC in batting average (.251), on-base percentage (.346) and slugging percentage (.381).
Still, it managed to make a run when it counted.
After earning the No. 14 national seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, Alabama won its regional before upsetting No. 3 seed Tennessee in a best-of-three series to punch its ticket to the WCWS. The Tide didn’t go down without a fight in Oklahoma City either, staving off elimination against No. 10 seed Duke after opening with a loss to No. 6 seed UCLA. In total, Alabama went 6-3 in the NCAA tournament with all three of its defeats coming by three runs or fewer.
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