Alabama Basketball's Season was Nothing Short of a Wild Roller Coaster

High and lows from a season that flashed extreme potential never fully realized in March.

The 2021-22 season for Alabama basketball is hard to sum up in one singular word.

When you turn to social media to see the reactions from fans at the end of the season, the remarks on the team's success — or lack thereof — can vary from person to person. However, there is one word that might accurately describe not only the emotions of the fan base, but also the performance of the team throughout 2021-22: polarizing.

"I'd say we had a successful season just a little disappointed, a little inconsistent, to be honest with you," Oats said after the conclusion of the season. "And the inconsistencies bothered us. All the fans were a little annoyed — the coaching staff, the players were annoyed. Some of our losses were really unacceptable.

"But we had some great wins. I told the guys, let's try to remember the great moments of the season. Some will be back. Some won't. The ones that are moving on, we've got some good memories of the year, just disappointing end to it."

Coming off of a season where the Crimson Tide won both the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles, expectations were sky-high for the program in head coach Nate Oats' third year with the program. Alabama reached the Sweet 16 as a 2-seed, where it fell in overtime at the hands of 11-seed UCLA.

While the team didn't advance quite as far as fans would have liked to have seen, the expectations set by that success only escalated as the offseason went on. Those expectations were also fueled by Oats and his staff's recruiting efforts, which brought in three highly-regarded signees in five-start point guard JD Davison, four-star center Charles Bediako and four-star Jusaun Holt. Transfers combo guard Nimari Burnett of Texas Tech and strong forward Noah Gurley of Furman only added fuel to the expectations fire.

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From the start, Alabama was going to have a tough schedule. Oats' desire to have a top-tier strength of schedule is well known. Not only does scheduling tough non-conference opponents provide a team with an early look on how to make adjustments heading into conference play, but wins over those opponents can also go a long way in building a tournament resume. Along with the announced participation in the ESPN Events Invitational — a field that included Kansas, Dayton, Miami and others — the Crimson Tide had also scheduled three of 2021's Final Four teams in Baylor, Gonzaga and Houston.

With the schedule set and the new players having arrived, Alabama got to work on defending its SEC title with strong hopes of not only repeating the success, but also surpassing its Sweet 16 appearance the year prior. While the season started out strong, it ultimately ended in disappointment as we'll discuss here shortly.

But first, let us look back on both the highs and the lows of Alabama basketball's 2021-22 season.

The Highs

When examining the highlights for the Crimson Tide from this past season, the first thing that leaps off of the page is its list of high-quality wins.

Alabama basketball started the season 8-1, with its sole loss being an inexplicable 72-68 loss to Iona in the opening round of the ESPN Events Invitational. While at the time it seemed like a simple bump in the road for the Crimson Tide, the loss was a foreshadowing of things to come for the team.

We'll save that for the lows section, though.

Among the victims of Alabama's first nine opponents were then-No. 3 Gonzaga and No. 14 Houston — two of the Final Four teams that Oats and his staff had scheduled. The Crimson Tide's 91-82 win over the Bulldogs at the Battle in Seattle sent a signal to the college basketball world: Alabama's success the prior year hadn't simply been a one-off performance. Oats and his Crimson Tide had arrived, and they didn't plan on going away anytime soon.

"This was a huge win for our program today," Oats said after the game. "Obviously, Gonzaga is one of the best programs in the country. I really thought our guys came ready to play.

"It was a big-time game and big-time players showed up. It was a huge win for our program and just really happy for our guys."

Alabama Athletics

The very next game was a home matchup inside Coleman Coliseum against Houston. A narrow 83-82 victory for Alabama gave the program back-to-back top-15 wins, rocketing the Crimson Tide all the way up to No. 6 in the AP Top 25. Alabama was firing on all cylinders, and the team's growing tournament resume had fans and media alike discussing the possibility of a 1- or a 2-seed in the program's future.

The Crimson Tide opened SEC play with two more big wins, downing No. 14 Tennessee 73-68 before beating Florida on the road 83-70. While Alabama had experienced a slight slump heading into conference play, the team seemed to have gotten back on track.

A 70-67 win against Will Wade and LSU was another sign that Alabama basketball could best any opponent on its record, regardless of ranking. While the Crimson Tide had fallen outside of the top 25, it still proved time and time again that it was a force to be reckoned with.

Two more big wins highlighted Alabama's schedule before the SEC Tournament, with the first of those being the teams 87-78 win over defending national champion, No. 4 Baylor. With the win in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, Oats and the Crimson Tide had downed all three of the 2021 Final Four teams that were on its schedule.

"I thought we had the intestinal fortitude, grit to then open it back up and close the game and get the win," Oats said after beating the Bears. "So, a lot of credit to our guys, a lot of credit to them for staying in there after we easily could afford it after a tough loss like we had at Georgia.

"But I think our guys, mind you, we're back playing the way we need to. Hopefully we use this to build some confidence and keep us moving forward from here."

Alabama Athletics

Two weeks later, Alabama defeated a red-hot Arkansas team, snapping a nine-game winning streak for the Razorbacks.

After being ousted from the SEC Tournament in its first game — another low — Oats' tough scheduling proved to pay off when Alabama was selected as a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament. While the 2020-21 season saw the Crimson Tide return to The Big Dance for the first time since 2018, Alabama's return for 2021-22 was the first time that Alabama had reached March Madness in back-to-back seasons since 2005-06.

While the season displayed a plethora of highs and trending in the right direction, the lows ultimately overshadowed them and gave the team's successes a bitter aftertaste. The Crimson Tide certainly showed that it had potential for for greatness, but its shortcomings were simply too great for the team to overcome.

The Lows

Losing Nimari Burnett to ACL injury

Alabama Athletics

One of Alabama’s biggest blows to the season happened before the season even began. Texas Tech transfer guard Nimarri Burnett tore his ACL and had knee surgery back in September. Originally recruited by Oats and his staff out of high school, he was longtime a player Alabama saw fitting in its system. 

Multiple times throughout the season, Oats mentioned that Burnett was one of the team's best three-point shooters, an area it could've used that help this year. 

"It would have been great to have him this year," Oats said back in January. "We could have certainly used his shooting. We’ve struggled to shoot the ball at various times this year, and he’s one of the best shooters we have on the team. I anticipate him being one of the best shooters we have next year and one of the better shooters in the country to be honest with you. He’s got a pretty high IQ and he’s really locked into what the team’s doing this year even though he’s out. He’s been a great teammate, he makes comments in video, talks to the guys when they’re out of the game, I think he’s showing some leadership qualities."

As Oats mentioned, even while being on the bench this season, he often seem engaged and would be one of the first guys to offer teammates high fives or an encouraging word coming off the floor. On the bright side for the Crimson Tide, Oats expects Burnett to be back to 100 percent health when the 2022-23 season starts. 

Inexplicable Losses

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Winning on the road in the SEC is never easy. However, it is sometimes expected, especially when playing one of the worst teams in conference history. The worst loss of the season came on Jan. 25 at Georgia in a 82-76 defeat. The Bulldogs picked up their first SEC win and sixth win of the season. It would be their last win of the year. 

Alabama also lost road games to two of the other bottom five schools in the SEC standings: Missouri and Mississippi State. Since the regular season ended, all three programs have fired their head coaches. By the end of the season, Alabama had losses to four of the five worst teams in the conference. 

The Crimson Tide showed its ability in the non-conference to compete with and beat anyone in the country, but losses to bottom-dwelling teams in conference play kept Alabama from reaching its full seeding potential. 

Disappointing Finish

Because of Alabama's strength of schedule and early-season non-conference wins, the Crimson Tide was in position for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament even with some of the bad losses. 

After beating South Carolina Feb. 26 on Senior Night with a convincing 90-71 win, Alabama saturday at 19-10 overall and 9-7 in SEC play. The Crimson Tide would not win another game. 

Alabama went 0-4 in March with a home loss to Texas A&M, road loss at LSU and opening-round defeats in both the SEC and NCAA tournaments. A year after reaching the Sweet 16, Alabama could not surpass the often elusive 20-win total. 

The team showed fight in the overtime loss at LSU, but could not make the clutch plays when it needed to. It certainly didn't help losing Quinerly in the opening minutes of the NCAA Tournament loss against Notre Dame or having multiple players in foul trouble against Vanderbilt in the SEC Tournament. However, the team did not respond well enough in either situation to come away with the win. 

Heading into the postseason, Oats and the players talked about how it was a new season with the slate wiped clean— the past, good and bad, was in the past. Yet even with a new slate, Alabama couldn't recreate some of the magic seen at various points throughout the season.

Wrapping up and looking ahead

Overall, the season was a mixture of extreme highs and frustrating lows. The Crimson Tide did not defend either of its SEC title, but did return to the NCAA tournament, and perhaps more importantly for long time Alabama basketball fans, was never even close to the bubble. That was one thing that was not a roller coaster this season. Alabama was firmly in the tournament pretty much from December on. 

And now the book has officially closed on the 2021-22 team. Lots of scholarship players on this year's roster, as many as 10, have played their last game in an Alabama uniform either to either transfer out or explore professional options. There will be a lot of roster attrition in the days and weeks to come following the conclusion of the season. Players will be entering and exiting the transfer portal all around the SEC including in Tuscaloosa. 

Even though it was an up-and-down year for Alabama basketball, the future is bright under Oats and his staff. The Crimson Tide brings in a top-three recruiting class according to Sports Illustrated All-American with incoming freshmen Jaden Bradley, Noah Clowney, Brandon Miller, Rylan Griffen plus community college transfer Nick Pringle. Regardless of who does and who does not decide to come back next season, Oats will be looking in the transfer portal to add more experience and depth to his team alongside returners like Burnett, Bediako and Gurley and continue adding on to the program he is building in Tuscaloosa.