Eric Rhodes

It seemed fitting that exactly one year ago today when @AlabamaMBB needed someone to step forward and make the game-winning shot that person happened to be Mark Sears. In front of 9,000 rabid fans in The Jungle for Senior Night, the Muscle Shoals native delivered a 10-foot floater as time expired in overtime to give the Crimson Tide a 93-91 victory over the No. 1-ranked Auburn Tigers on March 8, 2025. Sears struggled most of the game and finished with just nine points, but his last two mattered the most. “When we needed Mark late, he delivered and bailed me out because that play design wasn’t all that great,” @nate_oats admitted. A few weeks earlier in the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 showdown between SEC teams, Auburn left Coleman Coliseum with a 94-85 victory, but the Crimson Tide sought redemption in the season finale. Grant Nelson led Alabama with 23 points and eight rebounds and infuriated The Jungle crowd with a Crimson Crane pose following a thunderous first-half dunk over Dylan Cardwell. Clifford Omoruyi folllowed with 15 points and eight rebounds. Labaron Philon had 15 points which included picking the pocket of Tahaad Pettiford in overtime for a steal and layup. Alabama led 45-42 at halftime, before the teams battled to a 79-79 tie at the end of regulation. “We went up against them on their senior night and I think we showed what we are capable of being moving forward,” Oats said. “I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys. Nobody in the country came close to the seven-game stretch we had to close the year.”

Tonight inside Coleman Coliseum @AlabamaMBB begins the 2025-26 season when the No. 15-ranked Crimson Tide hosts the North Dakota Fighting Hawks and @nate_oats unveils Team 7. To say Alabama basketball fans are living in historic times would be an understatement. Since first arriving in Tuscaloosa in March 2019, Oats has restored the luster of a program that already had an underrated tradition and elevated it to unprecedented heights despite being in the shadow of football. Two SEC Tournament championships, two SEC regular-season championships, five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights and the school’s first Final Four have all been achieved in just six years. In a nod to the echos of the past, Oats wears his own style of plaid sports coats and @Crimson_Chaos continues the honored ritual of bestowing a plaid jacket to its new leader. There has never been a better time to be a fan of Alabama basketball as the current generation now experiences what students, players and fans in the 30s, 50s, 70s, 80s, 90s and early 2000s knew. This IS Alabama basketball and the tradition will never be forgotten.