Bama Central

Alabama Men's Basketball Unveils First Final Four Banner in Program History

Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reflects on the "special moment" as he and the rest of the team are ready to turn the page to the upcoming season.

Hunter De Siver

Alabama men's basketball's first-ever Final Four banner
Alabama men's basketball's first-ever Final Four banner / Alabama Men's Basketball
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— It's official. The Alabama men's basketball team has a Final Four banner in Coleman Coliseum for the first time in program history.

Head coach Nate Oats, assistants Preston Murphy and Ryan Pannone and the remaining players from the unforgettable 2023-24 Crimson Tide roster received their rings on Friday night as well.

“It’s special,” Oats said after he received his much-deserved ring. “We’re becoming a basketball school here, as well, so we need the support [of the fans]. We need you guys to come to the games. I thought the turnout was really good to support our guys. It was a special moment."

While the Final Four run was spectacular, the journey to the Big Dance wasn't easy and it started the second after the 2022-23 season ended.

The Crimson Tide, who was the the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament in 2022-23 had a bitter ending to the best season in school history as it fell to San Diego State in the Sweet 16. Alabama lost numerous players to the draft and transfer portal, and although the Tide was ranked for a good portion of this past season, it certainly was a shaky year.

Choosing upsets in brackets is a common theme in the annual NCAA Tournament, and Alabama, who entered March Madness as a No. 4 seed, was often picked to lose somewhat early by the college basketball community. Shortly before the NCAA Tournament, Alabama finished the regular season with a solid 21-11 record, but lost three of its last four games and also fell to Florida early in the SEC Tournament.

However, a switch flipped and the Tide quickly defeated 13-seeded Charleston and 12-seeded Grand Canyon in the NCAA Tournament to advance to the Sweet 16 against one-seeded North Carolina. Alabama-UNC was arguably the best game of the entire tournament as the Crimson Tide prevailed 89-87. Alabama then triumphed over six-seeded Clemson 89-82 in the Elite Eight matchup to achieve the dream of cutting the nets down.

The Tide's magnificent Final Four run would end at the hands of UConn by a score of 86-72. The Huskies went on to defeat Purdue 75-60 in the National Championship to claim back-to-back titles.

Fast forward to this year's team, Oats is putting last season's Final Four in the past as he's hoping to add a second banner with the words "National Champions" on it. Oats said on Monday that he believes this is the best roster he's had since he became Alabama's head coach on March 27, 2019.

"When you talk 1-through-13, it's the deepest one we've had," Oats said. "We've got experience, youth, athleticism, depth at every position. We're a little banged up right now, but even with some guys out, we've got so much depth, we're still pretty good. When we come together, we've got a lot of pieces, so I think it's our best roster we've had since we've been here."

Following the ring and banner ceremonies, the Crimson Tide competed in a three-point contest. Here are the results:

Round 1:

  • Mark Sears 19, Aden Holloway 18
  • Houston Mallette 16, Labaron Philon 4

Round 2:

  • Mark Sears 23, Houston Mallette 15

After the three-point contest, five different players went head-to-head in a dunk contest (scoring is out of 50 points):

Round 1:

  • Derrion Reid 41/50
  • Naas Cunningham: 46/50
  • Jarin Stevenson: 41/50
  • Grant Nelson: 12/50 (didn't complete a dunk in time)
  • Cliff Omoruyi: 36/50

Round 2:

  • Jarin Stevenson: 46/50
  • Derrion Reid: 50/50 (dunked over Big Al)
  • Naas Cunningham: 12/50 (didn't complete a dunk in time)

The final event of the evening was a two 12-minute halves scrimmage between 11 Alabama players who saw playing time. Team Crimson was coached by Ryan Pannone and Team White was coached by Ryan Murphy, as Oats switched back-and-forth to check in on both squads. Here were the rosters as Team White prevailed 61-57:

Crimson:

  • Guard Mark Sears
  • Guard Houston Mallette
  • Forward Derrion Reid
  • Forward Jarin Stevenson
  • Center Clifford Omoruyi

White:

  • Guard Labaron Philon
  • Guard Aden Holloway
  • Forward Naasir Cunningham
  • Forward Mo Dioubate
  • Forward Grant Nelson
  • Forward Max Scharnowski

Guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr., forward Aiden Sherrell and guard Chris Youngblood were not in uniform. Wrightsell and Sherrell are both week-to-week with lower leg injuries. During Sept. 26's press conference, Oats said Chris Youngblood suffered an ankle injury and won't be back until sometime around conference play.

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Hunter De Siver
HUNTER DE SIVER

Hunter De Siver is a graduate from the University of Alabama, earning a degree in sports media. During his time in Tuscaloosa, Hunter distributed articles covering Alabama football, basketball, and baseball for WVUA 23 TV and discussed these topics on Tide 100.9 FM. Hunter also generated articles highlighting Crimson Tide products in the NFL and NBA for BamaCentral. Since graduation, he's been contributing a plethora of NFL and NBA stories for FanNation and is a staff writer at MizzouCentral, Cowbell Corner and is back at BamaCentral.

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