Paul Finebaum defines Final Four as Alabama's definition of success

Alabama enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed and the second highest odds to win the national championship with +800 odds only behind Houston. It’s been a historic year so far for the Crimson Tide, winning both the regular season SEC title and winning the conference tournament over the weekend. But analyst Paul Finebaum shared on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning what the Crimson Tide need to do in the tournament for this to be the best basketball season in school history.

“I think he has to take it to where Alabama basketball has never gone and that’s very simple, it’s the Final Four,” Finebaum said. “I remember 20 years ago celebrating Alabama for doing something it had never done, and that’s get out of the Sweet Sixteen. I mean all those great teams, C.M. Newton and Wimp Sanderson, never escaped the second weekend and I think that’s what it’s really all about.”

The Crimson Tide won just their eighth SEC Tournament title in school history on Sunday, and their 29 wins this season already eclipse a school record. But according to Finebaum, the Crimson Tide are now competing against their own history and the precedent set by surrounding schools in the state.

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“The Elite Eight is no longer the benchmark, it used to be, until Bruce Pearl took Auburn to the Final Four four years ago. Auburn had been to the Elite Eight, UAB had been to the Elite Eight, and then Alabama of course went,” Finebaum said. “I don’t think it’s winning the championship, this isn’t football where you start the season ranked number one as Nick Saban has so many times and anything but winning feels like a failure.”

The standard of winning set by Alabama’s football program is hard to compare to, but their basketball program seems to have all the ingredients to achieve similar success this season. The Crimson Tide boast the SEC’s top-scoring offense, the nation’s best rebounding average, and are led by the SEC player and freshman of the year Brandon Miller. But will they be able to put four-straight wins together to punch themselves a ticket to Houston

“I think the Final Four is the goal because it would be sad to use a word that can be interpreted in many different ways, but it’s a little stronger than disappointing to see Alabama after all this not make it to the final weekend of the year,” Finebaum concluded.