Despite two blowout losses last week, the Alabama men’s basketball team is holding on to a hypothetical spot in the NCAA Tournament in most projected brackets this week.
The Crimson Tide is now 15-10 on the season but was included in 103 of 111 projected brackets listed on bracketmatrix.com, a site which monitors projections ranging from the well-recognized (ESPN, CBS Sports) to the obscure. Alabama appeared on 109 of 111 brackets in the previous week. The composite ranking has Alabama in the field as a No. 11 seed. ESPN had Alabama as a No. 10 seed, facing projected No. 7 seed Buffalo in a first-round game in Columbus, Ohio.
The Crimson Tide is currently ranked No. 50 nationally by the NCAA Net rankings, one of the tools used by the tournament selection committee. A total of eight SEC teams were in the Top 50 nationally in Monday’s rankings. The Crimson Tide fell seven spots following its losses to Mississippi State and Florida.
Alabama, which reached the second round of last year’s tournament, has not been selected in consecutive years since it made the field in five consecutive seasons from 2002 through 2006.
“We’re in control of our destiny,” Alabama coach Avery Johnson said on Monday. “Whatever quadrant our (upcoming) opponents are, we need to play like they are in Quadrant 1. Maybe we need to convince ourselves that they are ranked teams.
“We have the ability to put it all together. This would be the time of year to do that.”
