Alabama’s Mark Sears: 'We’re becoming a basketball school'

The Crimson Tide have become the second team in history to beat two different No. 1 opponents in the same season.

The Alabama men’s basketball team is riding high.

The Crimson Tide checked in at No. 4 in this week’s AP poll, the program’s highest ranking since Dec. 4, 2006. The Tide’s only loss is to the No. 3 team in the country, Connecticut.

Most notably, Alabama (8-1) has done something previously accomplished by only Oklahoma in 1990: beat two different teams ranked No. 1 in the same season. The Crimson Tide beat then-No. 1 North Carolina 103-101 in quadruple overtime on Nov. 27 and then-No. 1 Houston 71-65 on Saturday.

Alabama’s success has prompted a bold declaration from junior guard Mark Sears.

“I’d like to say we’re becoming a basketball school. We’ve proven it with some big-time wins this month,” Sears said, per the Tuscaloosa News. “So yeah, we’re becoming a basketball school.”

Sears, a transfer from Ohio, is averaging 14.4 points per game in his first season in Tuscaloosa—a figure that ranks 10th in the SEC.

The Crimson Tide football team is ranked No. 5 in the latest AP poll ahead of the team’s Sugar Bowl showdown with No. 11 Kansas State on New Year’s Eve.

It’s the first time in coach Nick Saban’s tenure that Alabama has been ranked higher in men’s basketball than in football.

• Get your seats to Alabama basketball with SI Tickets

“It speaks to how ridiculous the football program is around here for it to go that long,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said.

Sears and Alabama’s mettle will be tested in the next seven games, which include four ranked opponents: No. 15 Gonzaga (Dec. 17), No. 17 Mississippi State (Dec. 28), No. 13 Kentucky (Jan. 7) and No. 10 Arkansas (Jan. 11).

The Crimson Tide’s next game is a home matchup against Memphis on Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on ESPN2.