WATCH: Alabama basketball HC Nate Oats talks first visit to Purdue
Alabama basketball (3-0) will make way for Mackey Arena on Friday to face Purdue (3-0). Coach Nate Oats discussed the road trip on Thursday.
The Crimson Tide is rolling for the first time this season as Alabama basketball hits the road for Purdue.
All 14,876 seats in No. 12 Purdue‘s Mackey Arena are sold out for Friday’s top-15 matchup as Alabama and the Boilermakers each seek to stretch their records to 3-0.
On top of that, No. 2 UA has helped attract 21 teams and 23 NBA scouts to the event, which is thought to be the most NBA teams at a game in three decades.
Should coach Nate Oats and company down Purdue, Alabama will have broken the fifth-longest streak in NCAA history, as Purdue has won 38 straight non-conference regular season games since a December 2020 loss to Miami.
Alabama vs. Purdue will be broadcast on Peacock live from West Lafeyette, IN at 6 p.m. CT.
National champion UConn ended both Alabama and Purdue’s Final Four runs in last season’s NCAA Tournament. The Crimson Tide fell to the Huskies in semifinals before UConn head coach Dan Hurley and company denied Purdue the title in April.
UA suffered a 92-86 loss to Purdue on its historic 25-12 journey in last year’s Hall of Fame series contest in Toronto and trails the Boilermakers 3-6 in the series, going 1-2 on the road.
ESPN predicts a 52.5 percent chance of winning for Purdue. However, the Boilermakers haven’t historically performed all too well when they face teams ranked No. 2. The program’s all-time record against opponents ranked second in the AP Poll stands at 6-15, going 5-6 in their last 11 games versus No. 2 squads over 35 years.
At home, Purdue holds a 3-1 record against No. 2-ranked teams. Alabama is the highest ranked non-conference opponent Purdue has welcomed since a 1967 visit from then-No. 1 UCLA.
Just nine assists from claiming third place on Purdue’s career assists list with 482, it’s not unreasonable to think Smith would show out for fans to seal the Boilermakers’ four-game homestand and move his way on up the record books.
The junior’s average 9.3 assists per game rank seventh in the country among Division I athletes, which Oats, during Thursday’s media availability, said wasn’t an “abnormality” for a player who exhibits elite skill in the pick and roll and a top-notch basketball IQ like Smith.
Smith posted a career-high 16 assists against Northwestern in a 105-96 OT win in January. He started the 2024-25 season with a 15-assist performance to defeat Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 90-73, in Purdue’s opener.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
