Calm Before the Storm

Alabama begins its 2022 NCAA Tournament journey Friday in San Diego.

SAN DIEGO — Viejas Arena currently sits empty. 12,414 seats are unoccupied, waiting to be filled with thousands of passionate fans for one of the greatest sporting events in the world: March Madness. 

Alabama Athletics

In a few short hours, No. 3 Texas Tech and No. 14 Montana State will take the court to open tournament play in San Diego before Alabama begins its 2022 NCAA Tournament journey against Notre Dame. 

The first full day of the tournament on Thursday provided amazing college basketball from morning until night with major upsets, major beatdowns and overtime affairs, including the largest upset of the tournament thus far with 15-seed Saint Peter's taking down No. 2 Kentucky. Six of Thursday's 16 games were won by the lower-seeded team. 

As a six-seed, the Crimson Tide will be the higher-seeded team in Friday's matchup with No. 11 Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish had to play one of the First Four games in Dayton Wednesday night. Their game went to double overtime, and the team did not land in San Diego until almost 4 a.m.

So Alabama is the more well-rested team, the higher-seeded team and more talented team. But does that necessarily bode well for the Crimson Tide? It's never easy to know which Alabama team will show up on any given night.

When Alabama rolls into Viejas Arena Friday afternoon, that venue will no longer be empty. Thousands of red chairback seats will be filled by fans in various garb supporting their favorite teams or just fans of the game in general.

The NCAA Tournament shines a bright spotlight on all its participants, and this Crimson Tide team has done its best this season under the brightest lights. As Nate Oats and his players have echoed this week, at this point, it's win or go home. And every team wants to keep dancing, including the Crimson Tide. 

As we saw on Thursday, anything can happen. Because after all, this is March.