When I was a student at the University of Alabama during the Mark Gottfried years, there was some success but it never reached the level I dreamed we could get to. I understand that football will always be number one in Tuscaloosa, but after seeing so many “football schools” find great success on the hardwood I didn’t understand why the Crimson Tide couldn’t join the ranks of the Florida Gators, who won two National Championships while I was in school, or the likes of Ohio State and Michigan who have reached national championship games.
The most important part of building a great basketball program to the level that you can be considered a ” basketball school is finding the coach who can take the program to the next level. Gottfried found some success in Tuscaloosa but it wasn’t ever consistent enough. I thought there was too much talent to barely make the tournament and find only one time of a deep run in the tournament. After moving on from him I thought Alabama hit on two incredible basketball coaching hires in a row.
Sometimes I still wonder how neither Anthony Grant nor Avery Johnson was the guy to turn the program into a consistent winner. Honestly, after moving on from Avery Johnson I wasn’t sure if we would ever find the guy who could turn Alabama into as close of a basketball school as to what I imagined could be reached.
In comes Nate Oats and in his first six years he’s exceeded my wildest expectations reaching three Sweet 16s as well as our first Final Four appearance. His seventh year in Tuscaloosa has led there to be higher expectations on the court than on the gridiron.
The 2024-25 season has started about as well as expected, but the most impressive part of the start of this season is going into Chapel Hill and beating the Tar Heels decisively. A win over North Carolina is one thing but three in a row is something I don’t think many long-term Alabama fans ever imagined to see. My lifetime expectations have been exceeded in the last six-plus years, and now it goes to cutting down nets in April. The foundation has been set and now the expectation turns to becoming a championship basketball school.
Next. Houston Mallette – Mudita. Houston Mallette embodies “Mudita” for Alabama. dark
