Alabama basketball is atop the SEC standings with a 7-1 record in league play.
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00:00 Welcome in to another edition of BAMF Central's Just a Minute alongside Blake Beiler.
00:05 I'm Katie Windham.
00:06 Last night, the Crimson Tide beat Georgia on the road, a comeback victory,
00:10 just a casual nine-point victory.
00:13 If you looked at the box office, it would be deceiving.
00:15 Blake was there last night for the game, saw it happen.
00:18 But because of that win, Alabama is now 7-1 in SEC play,
00:23 with a chance at home against Mississippi State this weekend to be at 8-1 halfway
00:26 through league play.
00:28 And Alabama has had the most challenging conference schedule to start things out.
00:32 But here they are eight games in at the top of the SEC standings.
00:36 After Natos has had to essentially replace the whole roster from a season ago
00:40 that won the SEC regular season and tournament title, Blake,
00:43 what is it about what this team and Natos have done so far that's so impressive?
00:48 >> I mean, I think it's remarkable that they're sitting at 7-1 and
00:53 that they have a full one game lead over the rest of the pack in the SEC standings.
00:58 And it hasn't been the most difficult schedule, like you said, but
01:02 there have still been a lot of difficult games that they've been able to win.
01:04 You think about the Auburn game at home, but I think particularly about last
01:09 night's win on the road at Georgia and the win at Mississippi State in Starkville.
01:14 And those are two really hard places to play.
01:15 Those are two pretty decent teams that other teams in the SEC have had
01:21 extreme difficulties going on the road and beating.
01:23 And the fact that Alabama is 7-1 is just a testament to how good of a coach Natos
01:27 is and the job that he's done with this team.
01:30 I mean, you look at last year, Alabama brought back just four players,
01:33 only three players that played on last year's team.
01:36 Natos replaced the entire staff, all three assistants got head coaching jobs.
01:40 We've talked about that a lot and how he brought in the entire new staff.
01:45 People kind of thought, and I thought this too,
01:47 that this would be somewhat of like a bridge year for Alabama.
01:51 I mean, since Natos has been here, he's gone kind of one elite year and
01:55 then kind of a down year, so to speak, where he still makes the tournament,
02:00 like he did in 2022.
02:02 But it hasn't been like a two or a one seat like he was in 2021 and 2023.
02:07 And I think, especially with the recruiting class coming in next season,
02:10 a lot of people thought that this could kind of be a bridge between one elite year
02:15 and possibly another one next year.
02:17 But that's not what's happened at all.
02:19 Alabama has been one of the best teams in the SEC, even after the kind of slow
02:23 start that they had with the difficult schedule they played back in November and
02:28 December.
02:29 And so I think it's really incredible to see the level of improvement that this
02:33 team has gone through, the fact that they were six and five,
02:37 that they were losing a bunch of these games.
02:40 And to see how much they've learned and
02:43 grown over the course of the season to now see them at seven and
02:46 eight is a fairly clear path to another SEC regular season title,
02:51 which would somehow be Alabama's third in four seasons if they were to go on and
02:56 win that.
02:56 Just say that about Alabama basketball after what we watched through kind of
03:01 the decade of the 2010s is truly incredible.
03:03 Because we were talking before we even got on that it would be exciting to see
03:08 Alabama at ten and eight in league play to be maybe even slightly off the bubble
03:13 to see them as like a nine seed or a ten seed in the NCAA tournament.
03:17 So to now be potentially talking about them winning three out of four SEC
03:21 regular season titles, it's truly incredible and
03:24 it's just a testament to the job Nados has done since he's gotten to Tuscaloosa.
03:29 >> Yeah, and look, there's a long way to go.
03:31 I think we've all seen how tough the SEC is,
03:33 just evidence is the results through these first eight games.
03:37 Starting this Saturday against Mississippi State at home,
03:39 which is a team like you said, Alabama did beat on the road.
03:42 But it's a physical team that has given Alabama issues before.
03:46 In the back half of the schedule does have a road trip to Auburn, Kentucky,
03:49 Tennessee, coming back to Tuscaloosa, both home and away with Florida.
03:53 So there's some tough games left.
03:54 But like you said, I think coming into this year,
03:57 people obviously expected Alabama to be a tournament team.
03:59 But maybe that this wasn't gonna be an elite team.
04:02 And I still don't think you'd say right now that Alabama is elite, but
04:06 they're in a position to win the SEC and have a very good seed in the NCAA
04:09 tournament, despite those early non-conference losses.
04:14 The metrics still love Alabama and if they continue to win,
04:17 they're gonna have another high seed.
04:19 And so, and then you look at the standings and
04:22 the team that's right behind them, it's a surprise,
04:23 the SEC in South Carolina right now.
04:26 And Alabama beat them really easily at home in Comacosta and
04:29 they don't play them again.
04:30 And so, it just like you said,
04:33 I think it just shows how good of a coach the Nato's is.
04:35 That his staff can completely change,
04:37 the roster's almost completely different.
04:39 And you have so few returners and
04:43 he has Alabama in the position they're in right now.
04:46 Eight games into SEC play, but that will wrap up today's Just a Minute.
04:49 Thank you so much for watching.
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