Under Nate Oats, Alabama basketball has been a sleeping giant, and just broke through with its First Final Four appearance in school history. Can they make more history and cut down the nets in San Antonio in 2025?
The tradition continues! CBB Review is again ranking the top 100 teams heading into the new college basketball season. Each day, we will reveal the next team until we reach the team slotted at number one. Up next: Alabama Basketball.
After signing another contract extension in early March and being one of the 10 highest-paid coaches in College Basketball, Nate Oats has assembled his best roster during his tenure at Alabama, which is somehow even better on paper than the team just in the Final Four.
Alabama basketball fans got good news this offseason: Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, and Jarin Stevenson all withdrew from the NBA draft and returned to Tuscaloosa for another season – Sears being a unanimous first-team-All-American, and Nelson being named to SEC All-Second team honors. All three guys returned with the hopes of not only increasing the draft stock but hanging more banners inside Coleman Coliseum.
With one of the biggest weaknesses from last year’s team being interior play, the Tide got that filled with a highly touted transfer in Clifford Omoruyi out of Rutgers who is (6 feet, 11 inches) and comes in averaging 2.9 BPG. Alabama will be able to match up with any big man in the country and that is what it struggled doing last season.
Alabama basketball will come into the season a little banged up with Co-AAC Player of the Year in transfer Chris Youngblood who put up 15.3 PPG out of South Florida, and will be expected to contribute big-time minutes for the team when back for Conference play.
“Youngblood has an ankle injury and is recovering after surgery, and we expect him to be 100% by conference play,” Oats said in a press conference in late September.
One of the biggest surprises in the offseason from inside the building has been Labaron Philon, a highly-rated freshman out of Mobile, Alabama who was once signed to play for Bill Self at Kansas. Oats raved about Philon during SEC Media days saying,” Philon has been really good on both sides of the ball and will get significant minutes.”
In terms of depth, Aden Holloway, Philon, Stevenson, Aiden Sherell, Mouhamed Dioubate, Naas Cunningham, and Youngblood, when healthy, will bring up the end of the rotation. Alabama is one of the deepest teams in not just the SEC, but in the NCAA. With many guys who sacrificed many minutes elsewhere to play for this team it would not be surprising if another guy besides Sears steps up and has big-time games. This is a team that should be ranked within the top 15 the entire year and likely will end up amongst the top four teams in the SEC standings when the conference tournament rolls around in Nashville.
Click here to learn more about our preseason top 100 teams heading into the 2024-25 college basketball season.
Head coach: Nate Oats (6th season at Alabama, 10th season overall)
2023-24 record: 25-12 (13-5)
2024 postseason finish: Lost to Uconn (86-72) in Final Four of NCAA Tournament
Notable departures:
- Aaron Estrada (13.4 PPG, 5.4 RPG, 4.6 APG)
- Rylan Griffen (11.2 PPG, 3.4 RPG, 1.9 APG, 39.2 3P%)
- Nick Pringle (6.8 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 0.7 APG)
- Davin Cosby (3.6 PPG, 0.9 RPG, 0.5 APG, 34.4 3P&)
Notable non-conference games:
- at Purdue (Nov. 15)
- vs. Illinois (Nov. 20, in Birmingham)
- vs Houston (Nov. 26, in Las Vegas)
- at North Carolina (Dec. 4)
- vs. Creighton (Dec. 14)
Projected Rotation
PG: Mark Sears (6-1, 190, Sr.)
2023-24 stats: 21.5 PPG, 4.2 RPG, 4.0 APG, 43.6 3P%
SG: Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (6-3, 190, Sr.)
2023-24 stats: 8.9 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.4 APG, 23.7 MPG, 44.7 3P%
SF: Derrion Reid (6-8, 220, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #10 ranked recruit
PF: Grant Nelson (6-11, 230, Sr.)
2023-24 stats: 11.9 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 1.5 APG, 25.6 MPG
C: Cliff Omoruyi (6-11, 250, Sr.)
2023-24 stats: 10.4 PPG, 8.3 RPG, 0.5 APG, 2.9 BPG (Rutgers)
6: Labaron Philon (6-4, 190, Sr.)
247Sports Composite #35 ranked recruit
7: Jarin Stevenson (6-11, 215, So.)
2023-24 stats: 5.3 PPG, 2.7 RPG, 0.4 APG, 16.6 MPG
8: Aden Holloway (6-1, 180, So.)
2023-24 stats: 7.3 PPG, 2.7 APG, 1.5 RPG, 30.2 3P% (Auburn)
9: Aiden Sherell (6-6, 189, So.)
247Sports Composite #23 ranked recruit
10: Mouhamed Dioubate (6-7, 215, So.)
2023-24 stats: 2.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, 0.4 APG, 7.7 MPG
11: Chris Youngblood (6-4, 223, Sr.) (Out until mid-December)
2023-24 stats: 15.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.1 APG, 41.6 3P% (South Florida)
12: Naas Cunningham (6-7, 175, Fr.)
247Sports Composite #46 ranked recruit
13: Houston Mallette (6-5, 200, Sr.)
2023-24 stats: 14.7 PPG, 3.2 RPG, 2.4 APG, 41.5 3P% (Pepperdine)
Alabama Basketball team MVP: Mark Sears
The SEC Pre-season player of the year is back in Tuscaloosa for another year after delaying his professional career one more season. Mark Sears being back should scare the whole country; on the offensive end Sears is one of the best Point Guards in the country, who is a relentless scorer, who always finds a way to finish at 20 or more points every single game even on off nights. Sears put the team on his back for the majority of the season and was one of the main factors that led to making the Final Four this past season. Sears is now one of the leaders of this team and will have to lead vocally and by example to the many newcomers on the roster.
Being from the state and wearing the Alabama A on the jersey means a little more to Sears,”Being from Alabama it means a lot to me to be representing the program that is on the rise in basketball.”
While Sears is elite on the offensive end, the defensive game is still a work in progress and getting better every game on that end will help not only the team but individually as well when making the jump to the professional level.
Alabama Basketball make-or-break player: Cliff Omoruyi
Everybody saw Alabama’s missing piece was throughout the season and in the tournament, and it was a rim protector. After transferring in from Rutgers, Cliff Omoruyi was seen as the anchor in the paint for the Scarlet Knights whether that was catching lobs, grabbing rebounds or blocking shots on the defensive end.
The Tide were exposed by some of the best big man in the country last season, whether that was Oumar Ballo (Arizona), Zach Edey (Purdue), Ryan Kalkbrenner (Creighton), Armando Bacot (North Carolina) or Donovan Clingan (Uconn). Omoruyi’s game will fit right in with how Alabama’s fast tempo works with lobs, getting the ball in the dunker spot and providing the much-needed post presence. If Omoruyi has a big season it will be one of the many reasons why the Tide will be successful this season.
Key analytic: Defensive efficiency
While Oats has been at the helm, each of his SEC Regular Season/Tournament Title teams 2020-2021 and 2022-2023 have had defensive efficiencies in the top 10 per Kenpom, which ranges by every 100 possessions throughout the season. Even though last year’s team made the Final Four with a defensive efficiency well outside the top 30.
Oats told candidates applying for the Assistant Coaching position “If you can’t coach a top five defense in the country, don’t bother applying.”
Which led to the Tide hiring Assistant Coach Brian Adams from the Los Angeles Clippers as the “Defensive Coordinator.” With Alabama having more length in its roster it should help its defense get more stops and to suffocate teams on that end with its Blue Collar Mentality.
Alabama Basketball 2024-25 projections
Projected conference finish: 1st in the SEC
Projected postseason ceiling: NCAA Tournament Champions