Grading Alabama Basketball's First Half of SEC Play: Just a Minute

Alabama is 5-4 in SEC play at the halfway mark.

Alabama guard Labaron Philon Jr. all smiles on the bench in the second half of the game against Missouri on Jan. 27, 2026. | Sarah Munzenmaier/Alabama Crimson Tide on SI

Welcome to BamaCentral’s "Just a Minute," a video series featuring BamaCentral's Alabama beat writers. Multiple times per week, the writers will group up or film solo to provide their take on a topic concerning the Crimson Tide or the landscape of college sports.

Watch the above video as BamaCentral assistant editor Katie Windham discussees Alabama basketball's first nine games of SEC play and grades the Crimson Tide's performance so far.

Nate Oats has set a new standard expectation level with Alabama basketball since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2019. Most notably, he's taken the program to its first Final Four, but also back-to-back Elite Eights, five straight NCAA tournament apperances and four total conference championships (two regular season and two tournament titles.)

Alabama basketball fans are used to winning and winning at a high level over the last five years, so that's why this year's 5-4 start to SEC play has felt so disorienting at times. The Crimson Tide has been at or below .500 in league play five different times through the first nine games. Alabama also dropped out of the polls for the first time since 2024 after a drubbing at Florida on Sunday.

Oats' team is coming off probably its biggest win in SEC play so far with a 100-97 victory over league-leading Texas A&M on Wednesday night. Alabama has historically played really well at home under Oats but had already lost two SEC homes games and three home matchups overall and really couldn't afford to drop another.

In some respects, it's hard to fully evaluate Alabama's start to league play since the Tide hasn't had a fully healthy roster for a single one of its nine matchups. For example, in the road loss at Vanderbilt, Alabama was without leading scorer Labaron Philon Jr. for the entire second half. Alabama didn't have Aden Holloway or Amari Allen available for the Tide's home loss to Tennessee on Jan. 24. Every scholarship player has missed at least one game with injury this year except Houston Mallette and Noah Williamson.

Overall, I give Alabama a B- through the first half of SEC play. The conference isn't as good as it was a season ago, but it is still probably the deepest conference in college basketball. The Tide had showed it can compete with and beat some of the best teams in the country but it also susceptible to losing to anyone if it doesn't show up giving full effort on any given night.

There is definitely room for improvement to raise the grade heading into the back half of the schedule starting with a rivalry road test at Auburn on Saturday. Alabama can also move up in the standings from where it currently is tied for seventh. The Crimson Tide only has two games remaining against currently ranked opponents: vs. No. 21 Arkansas on Feb. 17 and at No. 25 Tennessee on Feb. 28.

SEC Basketball Standings

Team	SEC Record
Texas A&M	7-2
Florida	7-2
Kentucky	7-3
Arkansas	6-3
Vanderbilt	6-3
Tennessee	6-3
Alabama	5-4
Missouri	5-4
Auburn	5-4
Texas	5-5
Georgia	4-5
Ole Miss	3-6
Mississippi State	3-6
LSU	2-7
South Carolina	2-8
Oklahoma	1-9