Mar 29, 2025; Newark, NJ, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reacts to a call during the first half against the Duke Blue Devils in the East Regional final of the 2025 NCAA tournament at Prudential Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
NEWARK, N.J. –– 2-seed Alabama men’s basketball fell to 1-seed Duke 85-65 in the Elite Eight on Saturday night.
This ended the Crimson Tide’s season as the Blue Devils did so in dominant fashion on both ends of the floor.
There’s so much to dissect from this matchup at Prudential Center. Here are three takeaways:
The Crimson Tide broke NCAA Tournament records for threes made (25) and threes attempted (51) in the Sweet 16 win over BYU on Thursday. Alabama also set those marks with over seven minutes remaining in the second half (previous record was 21 made threes and 43 attempted) and just kept firing.
While the next opponent was ranked higher on both ends of the floor, it’s still fair to say that the momentum of a shooting night like Thursday could swing into the next game. But it was decided fairly early into Alabama’s matchup with Duke that the three-ball didn’t have as much magic as it did against the Cougars.
Alabama shot 8 of 32 from deep. That’s 13 fewer made threes on 11 less shots. Many Crimson Tide players have been given the green light by head coach Nate Oats to take long-range shots, but it was not his team’s night from the area.
Down low wasn’t much better as the Crimson Tide was 9 of 20 on layups and 12-for-25 overall at the rim. Alabama scored 28 points in the paint compared to the Blue Devils’ 30. This was heavily due to Duke’s size, as it also slowed down Alabama––the fastest-paced team in the country––all game long.
“They’ve got length all over the place,” Oats said during the postgame press conference. “You look at their starting lineup, they’ve got Khaman Maluach that has a 9’8 reach, he protects the rim at a high level…But when they’ve got a rim protector, it’s hard to get rim shots.
“We made the point to our guys we’re not going to go in and score on him, and we had a few guys still try to challenge him. It’s kind of a habit, you can tell them going in. And then he ended up having two blocks. We ended up having more blocks than them, but the way he challenges, it’s a problem. He challenges at the rim.”
Duke superstar Cooper Flagg was a big part of Alabama’s defensive emphasis, as the Crimson Tide didn’t want the projected No. 1 overall pick of the 2025 NBA Draft to heat up. Flagg scored 16 points on 6-for-16 from the field, but the “versatile” and “aggressive” forward was also a handful against Alabama’s offense. In addition to Maluach and Flagg, every other starter is at least 6-foot-6.
“We didn’t finish at the paint, didn’t get to the O-boards well enough. We had too many turnovers. We had three turnovers before the first media time-out, which dug us a huge hole right out of the gate. Our defense wasn’t where it needed to be in the first four minutes and we turned the ball over three times.
Alabama entered the 2024-25 season as the No. 2 team in the AP Preseason Poll––its highest-ever initial placement. The Crimson Tide ended nonconference play with an 11-2 record, including wins over three teams who were ranked at the time. The losses came to then-No. 13 Purdue and also to Oregon in the Players Era Festival Championship.
And while the Tide’s non-conference record was excellent, the same could be said for the rest of the Southeastern Conference. The SEC logged a 14-2 record in this year’s SEC/ACC Challenge. FOURTEEN WINS and TWO LOSSES against perhaps the best college basketball conference of this generation.
Practically every team was competitive against one another throughout SEC play as 12 of Alabama’s 18 games were against an opponent who was ranked at the time. The Crimson Tide finished this crucial portion of the schedule with a 13-5 record.
14 of the 16 teams in the SEC finished the regular season with at least 19 wins. In 2011, the Big East saw 11 teams earn spots in the NCAA Tournament. The SEC smashed that record with 14 teams listed in the field of 68, and if you fast forward a good bit, four members of the conference landed a spot in the Elite Eight.
So, with everything that Alabama has been through this season, especially having the toughest strength of schedule but also the No. 1 spot in the country in points per game, does Oats think this season was a success?
“There’s a lot of things you can look to that I’ve got to do a better job as a head coach, and I will do a better job moving forward. That we’ve got to keep continuing to recruit guys that fit our system and adapt when things happen and do better in the regular season and give yourself a better chance with a better seed.
“But you know, there’s also — I don’t know if there’s been a better run in three-year history at Alabama. No. 1 overall seed, make a Final Four, and then make back-to-back Elite Eights. While it was disappointing for the standards we’ve set, most teams in the country didn’t set the standards as high as we set them.
“With the standard of excellence we’ve set across all of college basketball, we’ve established ourselves as one of the best programs in the country. Are we disappointed tonight? For sure we are, but we’ve put ourselves up there with everybody else. And we’re going to continue to do that year in and year out and keep knocking on the door, keep pounding the stone, if you will, and be one of the teams competing for a Final Four and a National Championship and conference championships in the best conference in college basketball every year, and we’ll get back to the Final Four and win one here soon.”
Brandon Miller, Derrick McKey, Robert Horry, Latrell Sprewell, Collin Sexton, Herb Jones. These are the names of some of Alabama’s best players in program history. However, they all have one thing in common: they never went to a Final Four and have combined for one Elite Eight appearance.
Enter Mark Sears, who led Alabama to the Final Four last season for the first time in program history and also steered the ship to back-to-back Elite Eight appearances. Sears also became the Crimson Tide’s first-ever consensus First Team All-American on March 19.
Additionally, in this season alone, he’s been named an All-SEC First Team member by both the conference coaches and the Associated Press. Additionally, he is a finalist for the Bob Cousy Award, which is given to the nation’s best point guard, a semifinalist for the Naismith Trophy, which is given to the National Player of the Year, and also earned the title of First Team All-American by The Sporting News and the Associated Press.
So, what are Oats’ final thoughts on Sears’ legacy over the past three seasons as the graduate student heads for the next stage?
“To be second on the school scoring list and then to go in as a 2 seed — and we were the No. 1 overall seed, fourth seed that made the Final Four — and a 2 seed, we won a regular season and a tournament championship in the SEC his first year, make a Final Four, and then do what we did this year and make back-to-back Elite Eights for the first time in school history and he’s the leading scorer again. He’s First Team All-American. Second guy in school history to be a First Team All-American (Brandon Miller).
“Who knows where his career is going to take him? He’s going to get a chance to play in the NBA. I think he’s done a lot of the stuff the NBA told him he needed to get better at this year. This year he’s become a much better decision maker. His rim reads, his leadership skills and his defensive effort are much improved. He was more efficient last year, but when you come in as a preseason National Player of the Year, everybody has got their defense designed to stop you.
“He had to play with a little bit different pressure, a little bit different defenses on him this year. I’m going to put him right up there. We’ve had some really good players here. We’ve had guys that we’ve coached that have gone and played in the NBA. Got a lot of guys currently playing in the NBA. I hope he gets the chance. It’s my hope that he makes it on a roster. But as far as what he’s done in college, be hard to match what he’s done in that regard in those three years he’s been here.”
