The Alabama basketball team will be the No. 9 seed in the Southeastern Conference basketball tournament, opening against No. 8 seed Texas A&M on Thursday in St. Louis. Tipoff is scheduled for noon CT.
The Crimson Tide and Aggies played twice in the regular season and will be playing for the second time in five days. Texas A&M defeated Alabama 68-66 in College Station on Saturday. Alabama (17-14, 8-10) routed the Aggies 79-57 in Tuscaloosa in late December.
The winner of Thursday’s Alabama-Texas A&M game will play Auburn, the tournament’s No. 1 seed, on Friday. Auburn earned the top seed on Saturday with a win against South Carolina. Joining the Tigers with the double-bye are No. 2 seed Tennessee, No. 3 Florida and No. 4 Kentucky.
Alabama heads into tournament play having lost five consecutive games.
The full schedule for the tournament (Central Time) is:
Wednesday, March 7
Game 1: No. 12 Georgia vs No. 13 Vanderbilt, 6 p.m.
Game 2: No. 11 South Carolina vs. No. 14 Ole Miss, 8 p.m.
Thursday, March 8
Game 3: No. 8 Texas A&M vs. No. 9 Alabama, noon
Game 4: No. 5 Missouri vs. Game 1 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 5: No. 7 Mississippi State vs. No. 10 LSU, 6 p.m.
Game 6: No. 6 Arkansas vs. Game 2 winner, 8 p.m.
Friday, March 9
Game 7: No. 1 Auburn vs Game 3 winner, noon.
Game 8: No. 4 Kentucky vs Game 4 winner, 2 p.m.
Game 9: No. 2 Tennessee vs. Game 5 winner, 6 p.m.
Game 10: No. 3 Florida vs. Game 6 winner, 8 p.m.
Saturday, March 10
Semifinals, noon and 2:15 p.m.
Sunday, March 11
Finals, noon
Alabama has not won the SEC Tournament since 1991, although it remains second in total tournament titles behind Kentucky (30).
Reach Cecil Hurt at cecil@tidesports.com or 205-722-0225.
