Despite an early exit in the SEC Tournament for Alabama basketball, the Crimson Tide was still assigned a four seed in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament as they head to the Midwest Region. They will face Hofstra in the opening round on Friday. Win that game and they get the winner of Texas Tech-Akron on Sunday. Michigan is the No. 1 seed in the region.
The Hofstra Pride finished 24–10 (12–6 CAA) after winning the conference tournament as the three seed. They were ranked No. 88 with an 0-1 record in Quad 1 and 2-2 in Quad 2. HU’s best win was at #86 Syracuse.
Alabama had one of the tougher schedule’s in the nation. They went 7-7 versus Quad 1 teams, 9-2 against Quad 2, and 7-0 vs Quads 3 and 4. Thus, they received a favorable seeding.
Many of the Bracketology “experts” had the Tide heading out west.
Head coach Nate Oats leads the Tide to the Big Dance for the sixth straight season. In his press conference, Oats stated “I didn’t plan on being a four seed this year…” He went on to say that the season has been “a little bit of a disappointment” and “we can fix all that here over the next two weeks.”
OF NOTE:
- Two former Alabama assistant coaches are going dancing. Antoine Pettway’s Kennesaw State Owls won the CUSA title. Bryan Hodgson is leading USF into their first March Madness since 2012 when the Bulls were a First Four team that had to play an extra play-in game.
- SEC Champ Arkansas received the No. 4 seed in the West.
- The four No. 1 seeds are Duke, Arizona, Michigan, Florida.
- The SEC leads the nation with ten teams in the tournament.
- The First Four Out were Oklahoma, Auburn, San Diego State, and Indiana.
- The Last Four In are NC State, Texas SMU, and Miami (OH).
- CBS’s Seth Davis predicts a Hofstra win over Alabama.
