Against Baylor, Alabama Basketball Proved Once Again that It Can Beat Anyone

The Crimson Tide has now beaten three of last year's Final Four teams and its five wins over ranked opponents ties Marquette for the most in the country this season.

Author:
Joey Blackwell
Jan 31, 2022 9:00 AM EST

After suffering its worst loss of the season at Georgia earlier in the week, Alabama basketball came back in impressive fashion on Saturday, upsetting No. 4 Baylor 87-78 and picking up arguably its biggest win of the season.

The win solidified that the Crimson Tide — while having struggled repeatedly over a period of almost two months — can still compete with some of the best teams in the country. Six losses over a span of 11 games was seemingly wiped away in 40 minutes on the court in Coleman Coliseum.

This Alabama basketball team still has its issues. There's simply no way around that. However, the resume that it has built this season is still quite impressive. Of its 14 wins this season, five of them are against ranked opponents — tied with Marquette for the most in the country. Of those five, three were Final Four teams in 2021 in Gonzaga, Houston and Baylor, making the Crimson Tide just the sixth team over the last 30 seasons to beat three Final Four teams the next year.

In short, Alabama proved something with Saturdays win over the Baylor Bears: no team that it plays is safe. Name the time, name the place, and the Crimson Tide can still beat its opponent, no matter the ranking or regardless of what odds are stacked against it.

"When we play really hard, we’re one of the best teams in the country, and that’s fun," Alabama coach Nate Oats said on Saturday. "So let’s play hard and have fun. I kind of gave them three Fs before the game. I said, ‘We need to be focused. We need to fly around, play with energy. And then let’s have fun.’

“I thought we were pretty focused for most of the game, we flew around and then we had a lot of fun. Beating last year’s national championship, another Final Four team, we’re now 3-0 against Final Four teams. That’s fun. Losing to teams like Georgia, Missouri, some of the other ones that maybe we should have played better against, at Memphis even, like that’s not fun. So let’s play hard. It’s a lot more fun to play hard and get wins.”

While Alabama certainly enjoyed the win over Baylor, the road doesn't get smoother in terms of upcoming opponents. On Tuesday, the Crimson Tide travels to No. 1 Auburn in a crucial road conference game. The Tigers have been nothing short of red-hot lately, boasting the top ranking in the AP Top 25 for the first time in program history. Earlier this season, Auburn downed Alabama in the final minutes Coleman Coliseum, pulling away to an 81-77 win.

But even in the loss, the Crimson Tide had an opportunity to win.

The game has been labeled as a sort of 'David vs Goliath' game, which fans of both programs would probably find slightly ironic given the rivals' positions of power on the football field. In one corner, you have the top-ranked team in the country that has won 17-consecutive games and has garnered not just the adoration of its fans but also an incredible amount of attention on a national scale.

In the other corner, you have a giant-killing team that, while being plagued with inconsistent performances, still has an uncanny ability to rise to the occasion whenever the team it plays has a number denoting ranking in front of it on the schedule.

After Auburn comes No. 12 Kentucky on Saturday. While Oats and Alabama no doubt enjoyed the win over Baylor, he still recognized that the job wasn't finished yet and that it was no time for him, his staff or his players to ease off of the gas pedal just yet.

"You can’t get all three if you don’t get the first one," Oats said. "We got the first one, now we’re looking ahead to Auburn. We’ve got a quick turnaround. I thought we played them tough here. We’ve gotta do a much better job at their place. It’s gonna be hard to beat them on the road, but we’re capable. We’ve seemed to stepped up in every big game we’ve had, and it’s gonna be a tough game for us at Auburn. [...] Kentucky is playing pretty good basketball. They’re back to being Kentucky.

"So we’re not gonna overlook Auburn, that’s for sure, but we’ve got two tough ones sitting out there next week for us.”

Of Alabama's 14 wins this season, six were Quadrant 1 victories, while two more were Quad 2. Its final six were Quad 3, and so far the Crimson Tide has yet to play a Quad 4 game this season. While Alabama's average NET ranking of its opponents that it's beaten is 63, the average ranking of opponents it's lost to is 84 — you can thank Missouri and Georgia for that last tidbit.

Regardless of the tough losses, Alabama's list of victories has grown quite impressive and it can add to that list this week. However, the same question will continue to remain heading into every game for the rest of the season: which Crimson Tide team will show up to the court today?

That being said, should Alabama follow up its win over Baylor by beating both Auburn and Kentucky, that question might begin to slowly be put to rest over time. And if it does, there's still a lot of fun to be had by this Crimson Tide team.

"I told our guys before the game, ‘We’ve gotta get back to having fun,'" Oats said. "'This is why we started playing the game of basketball when you were a kid. This is what we play for, to show up in big-time games and have fun.’

"So that was a great environment. It’s great to coach in an environment like that. That was a lot of fun."