No. 1 Alabama Handles Texas A&M-CC in NCAA Tournament First Round

The Crimson Tide has advanced to the Round of 32 for the second time in three years.

© Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Survive and advance? How about handle business and advance.

No. 1 overall seed Alabama basketball destroyed 16-seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Thursday, winning by a final score of 96-75.

The win marks the second time in three years, and third time since 2018 that Alabama has advanced to the Round of 32.

The Crimson Tide continued its theme of fast starts and improved shooting that began in Nashville last week for the SEC Tournament, in stark contrast to the way it closed the regular season.

Also much like Nashville, the crowd was overwhelmingly in support of their home-state team. Downtown Birmingham’s Legacy Arena was filled to the brim with crimson and white, with only a few stragglers left supporting Maryland and West Virginia from the first game of the day.

"As soon as we came out of that tunnel, I had chills, bro," Alabama guard Mark Sears said. "Just seeing all the love we had, it was an unbelievable experience."

Freshman forward Noah Clowney earned some warm cheers from the crowd as his two 3-point makes helped the Alabama jump out to a 9-0 lead. It was Sears that invoked the loudest crowd reaction of the day, though, with a string of three straight makes from downtown in the first half that Alabama fans loved to see after his underwhelming performance in the SEC Tournament.

"Over the break I got back in the gym and started from ground zero, I just trusted my work," Sears said. 

Sears added that he made 300 shots Monday morning after the SEC Tournament, then returned to the gym to make 300 more that night. He finished Thursday's game game with 15 points and only missed one shot from the field. 

The game had essentially been decided by halftime, with Alabama holding a 20-point advantage entering the break. Alabama made a whopping 10 threes in the first half, including makes from bench contributors Rylan Griffen, Nimari Burnett, Dom Welch and Noah Gurley.

For the game, Alabama made 15-of-23 attempts from beyond the arc, the second-highest in an NCAA Tournament game in program history.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi opened the second half with an exciting 10-3 run, but after a quick Oats timeout Alabama answered the run with one of their own and kept the Islanders at arm's length the rest of the game. 

The bench was excellent all the way around, scoring 49 points in total and accounting for 51 percent of the Crimson Tide's points in the game. Nick Pringle provided the most from the bench, scoring 19 points and adding 15 rebounds.

Burnett scored 11 points off the bench as well, including shooting 3-for-6 from 3-point range. The strong performance came just after Burnett logged a DNP in the SEC Tournament championship game and played sparingly throughout Alabama's time in Nashville.

"We always stay ready," Burnett said of the bench. "We have a great starting group to come in and get us an early lead. If not, we have a great bench to, you know, either push that lead forward or get that lead back. So having great depth on this team only makes us one of the best teams in the country, and I think it showed today.

Additionally, Alabama didn’t get a single point of contribution from superstar freshman Brandon Miller. It was the first time Miller has been held scoreless in the first half since Jan. 11 when Alabama played Arkansas in Fayetteville, and his lowest point total of the season.

"Shows we're deep. We have a lot of options. A lot of talented players," Oats said. "You look at who is coming off our bench. Nimari Burnett is really talented. Rylan Griffen is super talented. Jaden Bradley is coming off the bench now. Two McDonald's All-Americans with Jaden and Nimari. Nick Pringle, you see what he's able to do. You go down the list."

Oats said Miller is still nursing a groin injury suffered in the SEC Tournament on Sunday, and that he wanted to give him extra rest.

With the win, Alabama advances to the second round, where the 8-seed Maryland Terrapins await in a rematch from the 2021 NCAA Tournament.

"We'll be better against Maryland," Oats said. "We are going to have to be or we won't get a win. Great to move to the second round. None of these tournament games are supposed to be easy."