Tony's takes: The dream is just beginning for Alabama basketball
Alabama basketball’s dream run came to an end. But Saturday night’s Final Four loss to UConn seems more like the beginning for Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide.
The scoreline doesn’t do Alabama enough justice. In the end, top-seeded UConn covered the hefty point spread placed on what was projected to be a blowout loss for the No. 4 seed Crimson Tide in its first Final Four appearance. Alabama hung with the Huskies for most of the game, but a 5:08 second-half stretch without a field goal saw the score slip out of hand in an eventual 86-72 defeat.
Don’t be fooled. Alabama proved it belonged with the big boys during its first-ever Final Four appearance. And with Nate Oats at the helm, chances are the Tide will be back sometime soon.
"We're not finished," Oats said during his postgame press conference. "We'd like to get back here and win this whole thing. I think that's what our goal's going to be. We're going to aim to get back here, aim to get back here and win the final game.”
Oats will be the first one to tell you, that’s no easy task.
Alabama might have broken its Final Four seal this season, but reaching college basketball’s peak is a rarity. UConn looks poised to win back-to-back national titles this year. However, the Huskies are one of just three teams in the last 10 years to even make back-to-back Final Fours.
Last season’s Alabama team entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed only to suffer a Sweet 16 loss to No. 5 seed San Diego State. Auburn reached its first Final Four in 2019 and hasn’t made it out of the first weekend of the tournament since.
Still, a month ago, a run like this seemed impossible. Over the past few weeks, Alabama proved it’s not.
Before the season, Rylan Griffen and Aaron Estrada daydreamed about how this season’s team was going to win a national championship and ultimately contribute to putting Nate Oats in the Hall of Fame one day. They believed it at the time, but those were just words. This month took that vision to a new level.
“We all believed it, but sometimes you’ve got to do it to believe it even more,” Griffen said. “We already know we can get to a Final Four, it’s just about going out and doing it again consistently.”
The fact this season’s team was the one that took Alabama to new heights should provide even more confidence. This wasn’t even one of the Tide’s most talented units under Oats. It ended the regular season by losing four of six games and looked dead in the water by the time the tournament rolled around.
Then Alabama began proving doubters wrong.
It started with a shootout against No. 13 seed Charleston in round one and continued with a slugfest against No. 12 seed Grand Canyon two days later. Grant Nelson had the game of his life to lead the Tide past No. 1 seed North Carolina and end Alabama’s sour streak of Sweet 16 losses. Then Mark Sears hit a couple of shots from the moon to beat No. 6 seed Clemson in the Elite Eight and send Alabama to its first-ever Final Four.
The sting of Saturday’s loss is still fresh, especially for Estrada, who ends his college career just two wins from the sport’s top prize. However, even the graduate senior can take solace in what this season represents for Alabama’s program moving forward.
“We took a step in the right direction with the legacy of Alabama,” Estrada said. “They kind of started that last year with just having the No. 1 seed, being the No. 1 team in the country. And then we kind of laid the foundation a little bit more with just making the final four. So I just feel like we set the standard.”
Estrada won’t be there to take the next step with Alabama, but several of the Tide’s stars will have the opportunity to return for another run next season. We’ll have to wait and see what the offseason departures look like over the next few weeks before making any early projections.
Sears, Nelson, Griffen, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Nick Pringle all have big decisions to make. Should they all elect to run it back and return, it’d be hard to count Alabama out of making a run to San Antonio and next year’s Final Four. Then again, this season’s bunch made history despite returning just three players from the year before.
Either way, Alabama now knows such a run is possible. And because of that, the dream will live on.
"We just got to keep knocking at the door, ask for [the fans] to continue to support us like the way they've been,” Oats said, “and we'll continue to put a winning product on the floor for them."
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