Alabama earns No. 4 seed in NCAA Tournament, will face 13-seed Charleston
For the fourth consecutive year, the Alabama men’s basketball team will be part of March Madness, as the Crimson Tide earned a No. 4 seed in the 2024 NCAA Tournament field.
During the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Selection Show on Sunday, Alabama (21-11, 13-5 SEC) was revealed as a No. 4 seed and will play in the West Region. The Tide will face No. 13-seed Charleston (27-7) in the first round on Friday, March 22, in Spokane, Wash.
Alabama’s first-round game is set to tip off at 6:35 p.m. CT and air on truTV. Lisa Byington, Steve Smith, Robbie Hummel and Lauren Shehadi will be on the broadcast from Spokane.
Should Alabama defeat its first foe, it will face the winner of Saint Mary’s-Grand Canyon in the second round, which is a matchup scheduled to take place on Sunday, March 24.
Alabama was one of eight SEC teams to make the 68-team field, along with Auburn, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi State. The Tide faced 13 NCAA Tournament teams in 2023-24 and finished with an 8-10 record against them.
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This will be the 25th overall NCAA Tournament appearance for the Alabama men’s basketball program and the fourth straight appearance under fifth-year head coach Nate Oats. It will be Oats’ seventh NCAA Tournament berth as a collegiate head coach. He has a postseason record of 6-6, including a 2-3 mark during his four seasons as the head coach at Buffalo.
Alabama earning a No. 4 seed this year marks the seventh time in program history the Tide has been a 4-seed or higher in the NCAA Tournament and the third time under Oats.
Alabama will attempt to bounce back in March after a one-and-done SEC Tournament trip and losing four of its last six games. Oats, much like he has all year, preached the need for the Tide to play better on the defensive end of the floor to keep its postseason hopes alive.
“These guys are going to have to decide how bad they want to win in the NCAA Tournament, how much we want to continue to play defense for 40 minutes,” Oats said. “If we play defense for 40 minutes, we can play with anybody in the country. If we decide to take 24 minutes off from the defensive end, it’s going to be hard to beat anybody in the NCAA Tournament.”
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