Alabama reached new heights last season by reaching the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament.
Now the task is getting back to the pinnacle of the sport.
The No. 2 Crimson Tide will start their path toward another standout season when they open against UNC Asheville on Monday night in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
Alabama won four NCAA games while going 25-12 last season and sent top-seeded North Carolina packing in the Sweet 16. But once the Crimson Tide reached the Final Four, they were outclassed by another No. 1 seed in eventual champion UConn 86-72.
Not surprisingly, Alabama coach Nate Oats is looking to minimize expectations this season.
“When you’re in the program and talking to the team and everybody inside, last year has nothing to do with this year,” Oats said.
The star attraction from last season is back — preseason first-team All-American and SEC Preseason Player of the Year Mark Sears.
Sears averaged 21.5 points last season and set school single-season records of 797 points and 26 games with 20 or more points. The 6-foot-1 guard shot 43.6 percent from 3-point range, averaged 4.2 rebounds and 4.0 assists, and was a second-team All-American.
Sears flirted with leaving for the NBA before staying put.
“I seen the team that we had, and I wanted to be a part of it and bring home Alabama’s first national championship in basketball,” Sears said at SEC Media Days.
Among the returners are 6-foot-11 Grant Nelson (11.9 points per game, 5.9 rebounds per game) and guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (8.9 ppg, 44.7 percent from 3-point range).
A key newcomer is transfer center Clifford Omoruyi, who averaged 10.4 points, 8.3 rebounds and swatted away 93 shots for Rutgers. The Crimson Tide also landed two five-star McDonald’s All-Americans in forwards Derrion Reid and Aiden Sherrell.
UNC Asheville went 22-12 last season and is dealing with numerous challenges after Hurricane Helene ravaged Asheville on Sept. 27 and prompted devastating flooding.
The Bulldogs relocated to Charlotte, N.C. — 130 miles to the east — and are practicing at area colleges and high schools and even the practice facility of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets when it’s available.
“We’re not victims,” Asheville guard Josh Banks said at Big South Media Day. “It’s just the situation that we’ve been in the past couple weeks. We’re just blessed and thankful that we still have a season coming up, and now we’re just locked in and focused.
“It has been tough to see the place that we live and the place where we are most of the time in the condition that it’s in now.”
Bulldogs coach Mike Morrell said some early season home games could become road games if on-campus Kimmel Arena in Asheville isn’t available. Asheville’s game against Appalachian State — a school located about 100 miles away in Boone, N.C., an area also hard hit by the hurricane — has been postponed to next season.
The Bulldogs lost two-time Big South Player of the Year Drew Pember, and Banks is the leading returning scorer at 12.8 points per game. Guard Fletcher Abee (10.6) also returns.
Morrell said he expects to have solid depth, citing eight newcomers (six transfers, two freshmen) on the roster.
