Alabama Basketball Not Shying Away From Championship Goals Heading into 2024-2025 Season

With the loaded roster Nate Oats put together over the offseason, the Crimson Tide is one of the preseason favorites to win a national title.

Alabama guard Mark Sears (1) talks with head coach Nate Oats during the Final Four semifinal game against Connecticut at State Farm Stadium. / Patrick Breen/The Republic / USA TODAY NETWORK

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— There's been a common thread connecting the answers from players on this year's Alabama basketball roster about why each guy wanted to be a part of this Crimson Tide team: the opportunity to compete for a championship.

After making a run to the Final Four last season, head coach Nate Oats rebuilt and reloaded the roster with top transfers and freshmen after retaining leading talent like Mark Sears, Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. Because of that, the Crimson Tide is ranked No. 2 in the preseason polls and is one of the popular picks to make it back to the Final Four and win the program's first national title.

"I like the fact that they've got big goals," Oats said. "I don't think we want guys that are selling themselves short. I think we've got the talent. That's what we should be talking about."

Alabama isn't shying away from those lofty goals or expectations in the preseason. Sears and Jarin Stevenson tested the NBA draft waters this offseason but decided to come back for at least one more year with the Crimson Tide.

"When I was in the draft process, I was keeping up and seeing the roster the coaching staff was putting together," Sears said. "And I was like, man this roster could contend for a national championship. And I wanted to be a part of it.”

Stevenson felt similarly as well as the opportunity to get stronger and improve his personal game.

"For me, I saw that we had a good team here at Alabama, so just the chance at a national championship has always been a goal for me," Stevenson said. "I still feel like I can get a lot better though Alabama. Alabama has great coaching. Coach Oats, Coach Pannone always push me to get better and teach me a lot of different things. I feel like just going through another year here, I can learn a lot and become stronger.”

Freshman forward Derrion Reid, a McDonald's All-American and the No. 11 overall player in the class of 2024 according to ESPN, was recruited by Oats since the beginning of his recruitment process and knew that Alabama was the right fit to get him to the next level. He called watching Alabama make the Final Four "the icing on the cake" of his recruitment.

"Just seeing where we could take it and just knowing I can help them get to the next step, which is championship," Reid said.

Oats knows that championship talk preseason means nothing if his team can't back it up with play on the court. And one of the biggest things he's focusing on is getting the team's defensive efficiency numbers back to the levels they were at when Alabama swept the SEC titles in 2021 and 2023.

"There's going to be teams that put themselves in the mix to win a national championship that nobody's talking about right now," Oats said. "People are talking about us. If we want to stay in that conversation, we've got to get better every game. We’ve got to come ready to go the first game. We've also talked about getting our defense back to where we had it.

“We've got goals within the game to keep our guys focused that I think will help kind of what your question was, kind of get them ready to go each game.”

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