No. 2 Alabama Basketball Doesn't Want 'To Be Part of Nobody's Cinderella Story'

Nate Oats set big expectations for his team, but the Crimson Tide can't afford to overlook Robert Morris in the Round of 64.

Alabama guard Chris Youngblood (8) shoot free throws during practice at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH on Thursday, Mar 20, 2025. / Alabama Athletics

CLEVELAND–– A 15-seed has upset a 2-seed in three of the last four NCAA Tournaments, and Alabama basketball wants to make sure it isn't part of that unenviable club when it takes on Robert Morris Friday afternoon in Cleveland.

"We don’t want to be part of nobody’s Cinderella story," Alabama guard Chris Youngblood said. "We still have some stuff to accomplish ourselves, like a national championship, but to do that, you have to take it one game at a time."

Alabama head coach Nate Oats set pretty high public expectations himself, saying anything short of a Final Four would be a disappointment. The Crimson Tide came into the season as one of the favorites to make a run back to the Final Four and is expected to make it far in the tournament with a 2-seed.

However, none of that will be accomplished if the Crimson Tide starts looking ahead and missing what's in front of it with the matchup against Robert Morris in the Round of 64. The Colonials have won 10 straight games and are 26-8 on the season as winners out of the Horizon Conference.

Alabama forward Grant Nelson said it's been a point of emphasis this week for the Crimson Tide to not overlook its Game 1 opponent.

"It’s easy to look ahead with how everyone’s talking about everything with brackets and all that stuff," Nelson said. "It takes some mental strength to focus on this team and know that in the past there have been 15-seeds have beaten 2-seeds not that long ago. It’s definitely on our minds, and we know we’ve got to lock in on this team for now and just let the rest take care of itself.”

The Crimson Tide comes into the NCAA tournament having lost five of its last nine games, but all of those games were against teams in the top-35 of the NET rankings. Robert Morris is 139th.

This game will be the easiest opponent Alabama has faced metrics-wise since December. That doesn't mean Alabama will be taking things lightly.

"You look at every team the same," Alabama forward Mouhamed Dioubate said. "We’re trying to dominate. If you know Oats, you know he don’t care what team you play. He wanna dominate. If he’s up by 30, he wants to be up by 50 points. That’s the mentality we have going into this game. We’re not going to underestimate any team under any circumstances.”

No. 2 Alabama and No. 15 Robert Morris are scheduled for an 11:40 a.m. CT tipoff on TruTV.

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