Can Alabama Basketball Pass the Tennessee Test After Early Season's Lessons?

The Crimson Tide can earn its first top-10 victory of the season after striking out three times in non-conference action.

The Alabama Crimson Tide basketball program has its biggest game of the 2023-24 season on Saturday. Head coach Nate Oats and his team have won six-in-a-row, but still sit just outside the AP Top 25 rankings thanks to a brutal non-conference schedule.

The Crimson Tide rolls into Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday at 1 p.m. CT to take on the No. 6 Tennessee Volunteers and hopes to prove that the early season's lumps were beneficial toward long-term success.

The magnitude of the matchup cannot be overstated for Alabama as the result likely weighs far more than just a single win or loss. The Crimson Tide is seeking its first top-10 win of the season, its third Quad 1 victory for its tournament resume and to maintain its perfect conference record and thus maintain Alabama's top spot in the league alongside the Auburn Tigers.

If that weren't enough to get the Alabama team prepared for a high-profile game on ESPN2 there's also a little bit of history between the Crimson Tide and Volunteers. Oats is 3-3 against Tennessee during his tenure in Tuscaloosa as Rick Barnes has routinely challenged Oats for conference supremacy. Barnes won the SEC Tournament in 2022 and has taken his team to the NCAA Tournament in each year of Oats's tenure, making the Sweet 16 twice.

Alabama hasn't fared well in high-profile matchups this season. In fact, the Crimson Tide lost a neutral-site game to Ohio State, lost to No. 2 Purdue in Canada, lost to No. 18 Creighton on the road and lost to No. 12 Arizona in Phoenix. 

The Crimson Tide held second-half leads against the Boilermakers, the Wildcats and the Bluejays but let each victory slip through their fingers down the stretch. 

So what did those losses teach the Crimson Tide about themself?

"Honestly the biggest thing that we learned in those three was that we were right there with all three of them for large parts of the game. Everyone of those three games we had at least a six-point lead in the second half and a 75 percent or greater winning-percentage, you know how they do that whatever, and we coughed them up. Now, Tennessee's - we played them away from Coleman, those other three. Only one of those was a true road game," said Oats on Friday. 

"So this would be a true road game in conference, it's a little bit different environment. If we are fortunate enough to get a lead, hopefully our guys have learned a little better how to hold it. They're going to know they're going to have to compete for 40-minutes. You can't come out - it could go the other way. We might be down big and have to come back, or if you're up big or if it's just tight, within a couple possessions the whole game. You've got to play 40. You can't play 28 or 32 and win these big games. It's got to take a full effort from everybody for 40 minutes."

Alabama held a seven-point lead over Purdue with 14 minutes left to play, the Tide was up six-points over Creighton with 15 minutes left in the game and held a six-point lead over Arizona with almost 16 minutes to go. Alabama faltered in all three matchups, squandering prime opportunities for resume-building wins that go a long way toward seeding in the NCAA Tournament. 

Oats and company have five more regular season contests against high-level competition. The Tide has a home-and-home series with both Tennessee and Auburn and also hits the road to take on the Kentucky Wildcats. 

Not only will the Tide have to claw a positive record in those five to defend its regular season conference crown, but it needs to play well in winning moments in order to gain confidence for postseason play.

The current six-game winning streak features a 44-point win over Eastern Kentucky, a 45-point victory over Liberty, a 27-point home win over South Carolina and an 18-point home win over Missouri as well as a narrow road win at Vanderbilt and a gritty victory at Mississippi State. 

Only the win over the Bulldogs in Starkville counts as a Quad 1 win for the Tide's resume and Mississippi State is the only opponent that finds itself in the top 50 in KenPom's analytic rankings. Remove the Bulldogs and the other five opponents carry an average KenPom ranking of 117, not exactly NCAA Tournament type competition.

One major problem that plagued the Tide in its three biggest non-conference games came at the charity stripe. Both Mohamed Wague and Nick Pringle fouled out against Purdue, Creighton and Arizona sending them to the free-throw line 28, 29 and 37 times respectively. 

The Volunteers enter Saturday's game attempting the 11th fewest free throws in the conference, averaging 20.1 per game. 

If Alabama is able to play without fouling on the defensive end and continue to play with the consistency they've shown over the last month then the Tide could leave Thompson-Boling Arena with a season-defining victory and with all their goals still right in front of them.

The Alabama Football Fire Hose on The Joe Gaither Show