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Alabama Climbing in Polls After Beating Top-Ranked Houston

Dick Weiss on College Basketball

Football apparently isnt the only sport of national significance at Alabama.

Nick Saban has established the Tide as the pre-eminent college football program in the country. The Tide may not be part of the national playoff this year, but it is stil ranked No. 5 in the AP poll.
But basketball is climbing quickly.
Nate Oats’8-1  team, which was ranked eighth last week, just rallied from 15 down to defeat top-ranked Houston, 71-65, on the road, seems ready to jump into rarifield atmosphere after beating its second to-ranked team
of the season. Bama got pre-season No. 1 North Carolina in four overtimes at the PK 85 at Portland.
If the Tide can beat Memphis and Gonzaga this week,  they could actually earn considieration as a potential 1 seed in Joe Lunardi’s bracketology, benefiting from playing a difficult non-league schedule..
Alabama is part of an SEC that no longer belongs strictly to Kentucky. the conference has at four, possibly five teams that could be top 4 seeds in the NCAA tournament. This Tide team is stocked with four McDonald’s All Americas– Miller, Bradley and transfers Nimari Burnett and Jahvon Quinerly,
The Tide have two freshman– 6-10 forward Nate Clowney and 6-9 forward Brandon Miller– who are currently listed as first round picks in most 2023 mock drafts from the No.3 recruiting class in 2022.
Clowney finished with 16 points and 11 rebounds and 6-3 freshman guard Jaden Bradley scored 13 points off the bench and junior guard Mark Sears had nine second half points as the Tide went off for 44 points on 50 percent shooting to offset the fact Miller, the Tide’s leading scorer and a likely high lottery pick, did not have a field goal to stun the Cougars for a second year in a row
Interestingly, the Tide got to the line 21 times in the second half on the road, making 15 free throws.

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Dick Weiss is a sportswriter and columnist who has covered college football and college and professional basketball for the Philadelphia Daily News and the New York Daily News. He has received the Curt Gowdy Award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame and is a member of the national Sportswriters Hall of Fame. He has also co-written several books with Rick Pitino, John Calipari, Dick Vitale and authored a tribute book on Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski.

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