Can Alabama Basketball regroup before a challenging road trip?

Even though Alabama’s defeat to Tennessee over the weekend left the Crimson Tide in a challenging position to win the SEC regular season, Bama is still capable of achieving all of its objectives.

Alabama had not lost at home in conference play since falling to Texas A&M in March of 2022 when the Tide fell to the Vols in Tuscaloosa.

In anticipation of what may be an equally challenging game, the Tide will need to rapidly re-calibrate. Traveling to face one of the hottest teams in the SEC over the past two months is Alabama’s trip to play Florida.

The Gators have gone 9-3 in their previous 12 games; at Tuscaloosa, Alabama, they suffered a loss. In that game, Florida forced Alabama into OT and came dangerously close to ending the Tide’s home winning streak before Tennessee could. The Gators have performed admirably throughout the league schedule, especially on offense. Alabama must give it their all in a season that hasn’t been kind to ranked teams traveling on the road.

difficult comeback for the Tide

This matchup marks the end of Alabama’s most difficult two-game stretch since it faced Auburn and Tennessee back-to-back in January. Considering that Bama has already dropped its home game during this run, it will need to triumph somewhere new to avoid dropping its first game.

More significantly, in only four days, another loss could knock Alabama out of the top four completely and into a tie for first place. Naturally, losing the double-bye would damage Alabama’s chances of making the SEC Tournament and its seeding in the NCAA Tournament. Aside from that, it would seem horrible given where the Tide used to be in the rankings. Granted, there would be challenging scheduling considerations, but winning the games is always preferable to leaving everything to chance.

With their backs against the wall, it will be interesting to see how Nate Oats and his group react when they walk into a hostile atmosphere.