Tide cracks top-twenty in AP and Coaches Poll... 

Gary with the block 

  Finally, the Crimson Tide has fought its way back into the AP and Coaches Top-Twenty Polls.  A quick crack at some mathematics tells me that a four seed is possible for the Tide.  Alabama is 17th in the NCAA NET rankings. All this goes to show that the media and NCAA are starting to take notice of Alabama basketball again. They should. Alabama is going to make the NCAA Tournament Field. The question remains - how low a seed will the Tide finds itself. 

     Alabama isn't going to be undefeated in the SEC. There are just too many good teams, and LSU is one of them. A win on the road in Baton Rouge would be a monstrous win for Oats his team.  I'm betting LSU will be a slight favorite.  The Tigers will be the best team Alabama has played this season since Stanford and Clemson.  The Tide has only lost three games and two of them were against good teams in the early season. The loss to WKU was an NCAA NET killer so to speak.

     If Alabama continues its hot shooting they will beat the Tigers. If Alabama shoots well they can and will beat anyone they play. The last time Alabama was ranked in the top-twenty five was 2011. 

JOHN PETTY NAMED SEC PLAYER OF THE WEEK AGAIN

     The SEC named John Petty, Jr. as the SEC player of the week. Petty has won the award once again. He also won it the week of January 4th. Jaden Shakelfore won it on Dec. 28th.  Three consecutive weeks for Tide guards.

 IMO -

Ambrose-Hylton

Juwan Gary - played some great ball in limited minutes. He was 4-4 from the field including a three. He had two rebounds and a steal. He also blocked three shots. A day's work in just seven minutes.

Darius Miles  - He nailed 2 of 3 from downtown, and showed some real progress to getting involved in the offense.

Keon Ambrose-Hylton - One monster Sports Center dunk, four boards made quite an impression on the commentators. KAH needs to continue to step it up in plugging the gap in the post.

Alex Reese - he made a three,  had three rebounds, and three big steals in only 13 minutes of play. Good for him.  He played some level headed basketball. If you look at the stats for Reese, Ambrose-Hylton, and Gary, they more than made up for the loss of Jordan Bruner. Oats has gotten his players to buy into his system.

HERE'S A STAT TO CHEW ON:

  Alabama has a strength of Schedule which is 32nd in the NCAA. LSU's is 91st.