How to Watch No. 18 Alabama Basketball Against No. 1 North Carolina

It won't be for the Phil Knight Invitational title, but the Crimson Tide will still get a shot at the Tar Heels, who reached the NCAA championship game last season.

The Alabama Crimson Tide had hoped to face No. 1 North Carolina in its final game of the Phil Knight Invitational in Portland, Ore., and oddsmakers had pegged those two basketball teams as the favorites to meet in the marquee-event championship.

However, when they do play on Sunday, it'll be in the third-place game. 

Playing a No. 1 team from outside its conference for the first time since 1999, Iowa State took advantage of the opportunity and pulled off the 70-65 upset of UNC in the first semifinal on Friday. 

Alabama subsequently committed 21 turnovers against No. 20 Connecticut, and was dispatched 82-67 in the other semifinal. 

“Tonight was a tough loss, UConn is obviously a really good team, and it is our first loss of the season so you learn about yourselves a little bit," head coach Nate Oats said after Alabama topped No. 12 Michigan State. "I thought our first half turnovers killed us but we did a good job and showed a lot of fight getting back to tie the game up a couple of times in the second half, but we just fouled too much. 

"They went 17-of-18 from the free throw line. The fouling just negates all of our hustle on the defensive end and when we needed stops, we couldn’t get them. We have got a lot of stuff we need to get better at; we have to take care of the ball better and I didn’t think we had a good game plan on how to stop their pick-and-roll with limited practice time. I didn’t think our effort was bad. I just think we couldn’t get some stops when we needed to, and they opened it up.”

Regardless, ESPN will show the game between ranked teams on Sunday afternoon. 

How to Watch Alabama vs North Carolina 

Who: No. 18 Alabama (5-1) vs. No. 1 North Carolina (5-1)

When: 2:30 p.m,. CT, Sunday

Where: Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Portland, Ore.

TV: ESPN

Live Stream: fuboTV (Start your free trial)

Radio: Crimson Tide Sports Network (Play-By-Play: Roger Hoover, Analyst: Bryan Passink). The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Series: Tar Heels lead 8-4 as the Crimson Tide has lost three straight. The last Alabama win against UNC was 101-93 during the 1989-90 season.

Phil Knight Invitational Preview

Last Meeting: Alabama and North Carolina last played exactly three years ago from Sunday, in the first round of the 2019 Bad Boy Mowers Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas. The No. 6 Tar Heels won, 76-67.  With Alabama trailing by three early in the second half, UNC went on a 14-2 run that lasted just over six minutes. The Tar Heels, which led the nation in rebounding margin, owned a huge 60-31 advantage on the boards. John Petty Jr. led the team in scoring, finishing with 23 points on the strength of 7-of-10 shooting from beyond the arc. Sophomore Kira Lewis Jr. also added 20 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists in the loss. It was his third 20-point game of the season.

Last time out, Alabama: After climbing back from a 15-point first half deficit, turnovers proved to be too costly as No. 20 UConn defeated Alabama, 82-67. The Crimson Tide committed a season-high 21 turnovers, after committing five on its first seven possessions. The Huskies went on a 14-0 run midway through the half to take control, and while Alabama continued to chip away, and tie the game on several occasions Connecticut went on 16-1 run to pull away for good. Brandon Miller scored a team-high 18 points. Jaden Bradley scored a season-high 12 points. UConn shot 87.5 percent (21-24) from the free-throw line.

Last time out, UNC: Caleb Grill hit seven 3-pointers and scored a career-high 31 points and Iowa State rallied in the final five minutes to stun No. 1 North Carolina 70-65. Iowa State (5-0) picked up just its third win over a team ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25. The Cyclones are 3-22 against No. 1 teams, with the other wins coming against Kansas in 1957 and Oklahoma in 2016. Grill was averaging 7.7 points and had made just 4 of 24 3-point attempts for the season entering the game. But he couldn't be stopped from beyond the arc, hitting a pair of big 3s to spark Iowa State's late rally. His deep fadeaway jumper just inside the 3-point line with 1:40 left gave Iowa State a 63-61 lead and the Cyclones did just enough at the free throw line in the final minute to close out the upset victory. Grill's previous career high was 27 points while playing for UNLV in the 2020-21 season against Alabama. He also hit seven 3-pointers in that game.  

Alabama Arrives, Practices at Phil Knight Invitational

Photo Gallery:

Alabama basketball practices at the Moda Center / Alabama Athletics

Nimari Burnett shoots a free throw during practice at the Moda Center / Alabama Athletics

Darius Miles / Alabama Athletics

Alabama basketball practices at the Moda Center in Portland, Ore / Alabama Athletics

Mark Sears / Alabama Athletics

Alabama basketball assistant coach Charlie Henry / Alabama Athletics

Noah Gurley / Alabama Athletics

Rylan Griffen / Alabama Athletics

Charles Bediako / Alabama Athletics

Max Scharnowski / Alabama Athletics

Noah Clowney / Alabama Athletics

Nick Pringle / Alabama Athletics

Mark Sears / Alabama Athletics

You Need To Know

• Brandon Miller was named SEC Freshman of the Week on Monday.
• Alabama entered the tournament leading the nation in rebounds per game (56.0), offensive rebounds per game (19.5) and rebound margin (24.5).
• Alabama’s newcomers have scored 294 of the Tide’s 339 points this season.
• Noah Clowney ranks No. 21 in the country averaging 10.5 rebounds per game and No. 1 in the SEC. Charles Bediako is No. 19, averaging 4.0 offensive rebounds.
• Alabama made 44 3-pointers during the first four games, the most under Nate Oats.
• The Crimson Tide was making 11 3-pointers per game, which ranks No. 14 in Division I.
• Alabama welcomed the highest-ranked recruiting class in program history, including McDonald’s High School All-Americans Jaden Bradley and Miller, along with four-star prospects Clowney and Rylan Griffen.
• The Tide is one of just seven schools (Arizona, Creighton, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA) to have a player named to the Bob Cousy, Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watch lists this preseason.

About North Carolina :

• The Tar Heels advanced to the semifinals with an 89-81 win over Portland on Thanksgiving morning in a game that tipped off at 10 a.m. local time.

• Pete Nance made a career-high five threes and tied his career scoring high with 28 points and Caleb Love scored 16 of his 23 points in the opening half to lead the Tar Heels. However, Nance didn't score for the first 27 minutes against Iowa State, and finished with seven points.

•  Love became the 80th Tar Heel to score 1,000 points, surpassing the mark in the opening moments of Thursday’s win over Portland.

• Carolina returned four starters from last season’s team that went 29-10 overall, 15-5 in the ACC, and advanced to the national championship game: graduate student small forward Leaky Black, senior forward/center Armando Bacot and junior guards RJ Davis and Love.

• UNC returned 71.2 percent of the scoring from a year ago in addition to 58.5 percent of its rebounding, 82.3 percent of its assists and 58.5 percent of its 3-point field goals.

This story will be updated.

Phil Knight Invitational

See Also:

Brandon Miller Shines on Big Stage

No. 18 Alabama Basketball Makes Statement with 81-70 Win over No. 12 Michigan State

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