Paul Finebaum firmly believes Alabama can close gap to win a national championship

Alabama has been as good as about any basketball program in the country over the last five years under Nate Oats. Still, without a national title to show for it, is there anything the Tide can do to get closer to winning the NCAA Tournament?

The answer to that for Paul Finebaum, as he said on ‘McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday’, is not really. That’s not to say there’s no chance of it but Finebaum thinks ‘Bama is doing all that they can right now to consistently contend in March Madness as compared to their past as well as to the other top teams in college basketball. Oats is still there, the Tide continue to bring in talent and have successes so, to him, that’s all they can hope for in Tuscaloosa in trying to eventually win it all.

“Oh, (the gap) definitely can be closed because, I mean, I mean, it takes, it takes the right players and Alabama had the right players at times this year. They just weren’t consistent enough,” said Finebaum.

“I mean, to me, and I understand what you’re grading that on as the highest possible curve. You’re grading that on a national championship curve, which I, frankly, have never looked at Alabama Basketball as, ‘How does Alabama Basketball compare to Duke?’. But, in this case, that’s where, that’s where we are because, I think, you can’t argue that Nate Oats is one of the two or three best coaches in America. But, you know, he just has to continue doing what he’s doing. I don’t think anything else really matters.”

Alabama is 129-48 (.729) in the last half-decade under Oats. That includes winning four conference titles in the SEC and five consecutive berths in the NCAA Tournament. Three of those teams have earned either No. 1 or No. 2 seeds while four of those teams have made the second weekend or better with a pair of Sweet 16 in ’21 and ’23, their first-ever spot in the Final Four in ’24, and another Elite Eight now in ’25.

It’s not as though upsets are eliminatig the Crimson Tide either when trying to win a national title. In those four trips to the second weekend, ‘Bama has lost to a team that went on to make the Final Four, let alone play for or win the national championship themselves. UCLA made the national semis and was a halfcourt shot away from the final game in 2021 and San Diego State made the title game in 2023 while UCLA went on to win it all in 2024 after beating Alabama in the national semifinal.

Now, Duke will enter the Final Four in 2025 as the odds-on favorite to win the national championship. That leaves very little to worry about for Alabama, despite coming up short, in their efforts considering who they lost to both this season and ones prior.

“If Alabama had been up against another team on Saturday night, there’s a good chance they would have won. They just happened to be playing what may be one of the best teams we’ve seen in a long time,” said Finebaum. “I know, from a KenPom stat, this Duke team ranks better than UConn last year. They rank better than, than almost any team recently. So, I think you just have to understand the circumstances. This is not Alabama losing to a good No. 1 seed. They lost to an elite No. 1 seed, which is very likely, and probably already is, the favorite to win the national championship.”

Alabama has been in some sense of contention in at least two-thirds of their seasons so far under Oats. Just maintaining that is enough for Finebaum to think they might eventually break through to win a national championship in March.