Paul Finebaum reveals how this season should be remembered for Alabama

Alabama reached the second weekend for the fourth time in five seasons with their year ending with a loss to Duke in the Elite Eight. That, while coming short of the preseason expectations, is still a successful season for the Crimson Tide says Paul Finebaum.

While on ‘McElroy & Cubelic in the Morning’ on Monday, Finebaum was asked about this season for No. 2 ‘Bama following the end of it with the 85-65 loss to the No. 1 Blue Devils. He said that their record should be thought of well considering what they did accomplish.

“I think it should be remembered very well,” said Finebaum.

Alabama finished at 28-9 overall for their second-best record in the six seasons under Nate Oats. Part of that was having the top offense in the country for a consecutive season as the Tide averaged 90.7 points. They then reached the Elite Eight for the second straight year coming off the program’s first-ever appearance in the Final Four last season.

However, despite starting 21-3, Alabama had their ups and downs over the last month and a half of this season. They went 7-6 over the 13 final games, with essentially all of those coming against highly-ranked opponents, which cost them seeding, both overall and in league, to end the regular season in the Southeastern Conference, they didn’t play in the title game of the SEC Tournament, and they weren’t able to again advance to the Final Four.

Again, that’s very little to be ashamed of considering who Alabama was playing. Still, that final stretch did cost them in ways that could have made this even more of a successful season.

“The problem for Nate Oats and this team is they’re being compared to last year. But, in many ways, they, they looked better at times and many times. But they just ran into some streaks of inconsistency and it got them in a couple of games,” explained Finebaum. “It got them in the Auburn game in February. It got them once or twice. And then, certainly, really knocked them out on Saturday night.”

Alabama was one of the best teams in all of college basketball in ’24-’25. Finebaum just knows there’s some disparity in that opinion considering what they were expected to do before the season and how they actually finished it in the end.

“I mean, I guess maybe I’ve been around Alabama Basketball too long to be thinking of an Elite Eight season as anything other than a great success, although I think, when you look at the expectations back in October and November, it probably feels a little bit hollow this morning because this looked like a team very capable of winning the national championship,” said Finebaum.