Alabama basketball history told in Coleman Coliseum banners
Alabama basketball history is chronicled in the banners that hang over Coleman Coliseum. Learn about those, including the 2024 Final Four banner.
Gary Cosby and Emilee Smarr
Alabama basketball has reached new heights in recent years, highlighted by last season’s Final Four run in the NCAA Tournament, but there were historic wins long before that.
The Tuscaloosa News has reached into the program’s history to identify the best 10 wins in 112 seasons of UA hoops.
With input from experts like Alabama coach Nate Oats and national championship-winning coach Tubby Smith, here are the top 10 wins along the way to a new era of Alabama basketball as the school known for football is making noise on the hardwood.
Oats would tell you this is the game where he saw the perspective on Alabama basketball shift. Auburn had gone 7-2 against UA since 2016, was undefeated and ranked in the top five, but the former math teacher’s arrival to lead the program saw the Tide turn.
The Alabama-Arkansas series offered a number of shootouts in the early 1990s. Here, the Crimson Tide rebounded from a regular-season loss to the No. 10 Razorbacks to kick Arkansas out of the conference tournament on a last-minute corner three.
To return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since its Sweet 16 run in 1976, Alabama edged out Kentucky at Rupp Arena for the conference championship after falling to the Wildcats twice in the regular season.
Georgetown’s roster brought the best center and player in the country in eventual Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing. That didn’t stop Alabama from clobbering the Hoyas in Los Angeles.
The Alabama faithful often remember the historic Sweet 16 game against Indiana, a loss to the Hoosiers who were on the way to completing an undefeated national championship season. However, the Crimson Tide picking apart UNC to get there can’t go without mention.
The Rocket Eight team made way for Lexington to punch out top-10 Kentucky, putting the country on notice that the Wildcats didn’t have the only basketball team in the SEC. Alabama didn’t best its 24-point margin of victory in the series until a 78-52 defeat of UK in 2023.
The final game of the regular season came down to the buzzer. No. 10 Alabama took down the No. 18 Gators with a tip-in to claim the SEC title, sparking a run for the conference tournament championship.
Buck Johnson, Bobby Lee Hurt and friends took down No. 1 UCLA in its own castle with a regular-season win at Pauley Pavilion in Westwood.
Stanford was the No. 1 seed, but eighth-seed Alabama won in Seattle to reach the Elite Eight for the first time. Now-Kennesaw State coach Antoine Pettway led as Alabama ousted a Stanford team that had only taken one loss all season.
A defeat of Clemson punched UA’s historic ticket to the Final Four, but the Crimson Tide wouldn’t have had the chance to make the Final Four without the Grant Nelson-powered win against the blue-blood Tar Heels.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
