It was clear early on against Kentucky that it would take a while for Alabama to get going after two hard-fought games on Thursday and Friday.
Unfortunately for the Crimson Tide, when they finally found a spark, the game was already decided.
The Wildcats couldn’t miss in the second half in shooting 84.2 percent from the field, and John Calipari’s team capitalized on its 3-point opportunities by going 12 of 18 from beyond the arc in the game.
But despite the blowout loss, Alabama head coach Avery Johnson was pleased with his team’s overall performance in the SEC Tournament.
“When we got on the plane to come to St. Louis, there were a lot of unknowns about our future, especially in the NCAA Tournament,” Johnson said. “But the perseverance that they’ve showed this year and especially over the last 48, 72 hours, for what I’m told, we’ve played ourselves hopefully in the tournament.”
The Tide entered Thursday’s second round matchup with Texas A&M firmly on the bubble, but thanks to Collin Sexton’s game-winner at the buzzer, earned an opportunity to play rival Auburn.
And after a slow start, Alabama made an incredible rally to score an 18-point win over the co-regular season champions.
Those two wins helped the Tide move off the Last Four In/Out Line and safely into the field, with most projections having them at a No. 9 or No. 10 seed at the moment.
“I’m proud of them,” Johnson said. “They’ve persevered. They’ve showed a lot of character, togetherness, teamwork. We’ve got guys diving on the floor for balls more than we ever have, taking charges, moving the ball on offense, getting the ball to the hot player. So I can go on and on.”
No matter who Alabama draws in the dance, it’ll need the services of someone that it didn’t have on the floor in the loss to Kentucky.
Donta Hall missed the game after suffering a concussion against Auburn, and is currently day-to-day heading into the NCAA Tournament.
“He’s in concussion protocol,” Johnson said. “We think that he’s going to be okay, but he’s resting. He spent some time in the locker room, then he came out at the end and tried to fire the guys up a little bit on the bench. Fortunately, he’s going to be fine.”
With the bubble worries behind them, the Tide will now turn their attention to trying to be the team that has a plethora of impressive wins on their resume.
Alabama has picked up two wins each over Auburn and Texas A&M, and also boasts victories against Oklahoma, Florida, and Tennessee.
And given how his team fared in St. Louis this week, Johnson feels good about where things stand heading into Selection Sunday.
“They gave us everything they had,” Johnson said. “Sometimes, even when you do, you come up short. But I think we’re well positioned. There’s nobody in the country that has a flawless resume, but boy, we got some outstanding wins, and we’ve played in some tough environments.
“And basically, everything that the committee said was the criteria for being one of the 68 teams, we think we’ve met the criteria. So we’ll see what happens.”