Alabama basketball has 'something to prove' while under the radar, Nate Oats says

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — There was no shortage of hype surrounding this Alabama basketball team entering this season. The team was ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP Poll and picked to win the SEC in the preseason, but since then, there hasn’t been much talk about the Crimson Tide.

Yes, Alabama still sits at No. 5 in the AP Poll with a strong resume and a 12-2 record, but when discussing the SEC, the attention is almost entirely focused on the Crimson Tide’s two rivals, Auburn and Tennessee. The Vols are ranked No. 1 in the AP Poll with the last undefeated record in the sport, while the Tigers are No. 2 in the AP, and ranked No. 1 in virtually every computer metric at this point.

Those two teams are dominating the conversations around the sport about who the best team in the SEC and who the best team in the country is. When asked if that gives Alabama players a chip on their shoulder, head coach Nate Oats said it should.

“You’d have to ask them, but I’d hope it would,” Oats said. “I understand it. Tennessee’s undefeated, Auburn’s played as well as anybody in the country all year. Those two teams have looked great. We’ve fallen a couple times. Our road game at Purdue, we didn’t look very good. In a couple areas, I think we’ve cleaned a lot of that up since Purdue. The neutral one against Oregon, that’s the one Wrightsell went out in. We had to try to make some adjustments on the fly, we really haven’t been healthy. But shoot, that’s the game of basketball. There’s a lot of injuries happening and you’ve got to figure it out, whether it’s in the game, whatever, you’ve got to figure it out on the fly.”

“So we’ve dropped a couple, Auburn’s only lost one and looked very dominant in all their wins, Tennessee hasn’t lost any.”

Alabama hasn’t performed to the level of those two teams at this point in the season, but the Crimson Tide has still put together one of the best starts to the season of anyone, evidenced by its top-5 ranking.

Oats believes that as SEC play continues, Alabama should be playing to prove it belongs in that upper echelon of teams in the league.

“We’ve got something to prove,” Oats said. “We’re flying under the radar a little bit, which is nice for a change. We’ve got to come in playing like we’ve got something to prove every game out.”

It’s a unique position to be in, having such a great season yet still being in position to be the ‘hunter,’ rather than the ‘hunted.’ Alabama already made one statement in SEC play on Saturday with the 107-79 drumming of then-No. 12 Oklahoma, and will get another chance to do so against South Carolina on Wednesday night in its next game.

Tipoff between the Crimson Tide and the Gamecocks is set for 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

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