Alabama Basketball Unable to Make Trip to Texas A&M on Tuesday

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Due to icy and snowy conditions, the University of Alabama men's basketball team is now scheduled to play at Texas A&M on Thursday afternoon at 2 p.m. (CT) instead of Wednesday evening at 8 p.m like originally planned.

Another winter storm is forecasted to hit the Lone Star State in the next 24 hours, so the Crimson Tide was initially aiming to get out of town before it's nearly impossible to arrive in College Station.

“The plan is to get there sometime today before the weather gets really bad,” Alabama coach Nate Oats told the media via Zoom on Tuesday. “But we’re having some issues with the plane. So we’ll keep our fingers crossed, hopefully get down to College Station tonight and then we’ll have a full day down there and then play that afternoon game Thursday and then get back. That’s the plan right now.”

However, due to the continued poor weather conditions in both the state of Alabama and Texas, the Crimson Tide was unable to fly on Tuesday. It will re-evaluate its situation on Wednesday morning.

The 8th-ranked Crimson Tide (17-5, 12-1 SEC) will experience a short turnaround between games, traveling to and from College Station then playing Vanderbilt on Saturday inside Coleman Coliseum (12 p.m, SEC Network).

It will be the team's quickest turnaround this season since the Maui Invitational back at the beginning of December, when it played three games in three days. At that time, Alabama lost to Stanford, but then beat UNLV and Providence.

"I don't think it affects it too much," Crimson Tide forward Keon Ellis said. "It gives us more time to prep for [Texas A&M]. It will be a quick turnaround after we do play them before Vanderbilt. But it helps us prep more for this game and we'll focus on Vanderbilt after this game."

The adjustment of the schedule comes at a time when Alabama is on the brink of clinching the SEC regular season title for the first time since 2002.

Back-to-back wins over the Aggies and Commodores means the Crimson Tide would at least own a share of the conference championship before traveling to No. 24 Arkansas on Feb. 24.

For now, all eyes are on Texas A&M.

"You have to control what you can control," Oats added. "We can't control the weather. You can't control all this other stuff. Once everything was explained to me why we have to play when we do, it all makes sense. The SEC did what they could. They are giving us as much time as they can. We just gotta roll with the punches. The staff's job is to be ready when it's time to be ready to go. The players shouldn't be taking one peak at Vanderbilt..."

Oats laid out how different the plan is for his team and coaching staff with two games in two different states, just one day apart. He says it reminds him of his time spent at Buffalo, where he led the Bulls to three NCAA tournament appearances.

"With the team, we just focus on Texas A&M," Oats said. "I don't think you can look at the next one without handling the one in front of you. The short turnaround will be like the NCAA tournament. Everybody is moving up to Vanderbilt after the A&M game. There is no time for clean up. The players are 100 percent focused on Texas A&M, and then win or lose, we're moving on to Vanderbilt. We have a short prep time.

"So 2 o'clock tip, game's over, then we will have personnel on Vanderbilt loaded into their devices immediately. The players will be able to look at it on our travel back home. Me and all the other assistants will be looking at Vanderbilt then, too. We'll reconvene that evening as a staff once we get back. Get a staff game plan together and present it to the team. That one day of practice won't be a regular day of practice because you just played the night before. It's more of a walkthrough. Then we go play the game.

"But I don't think you can look at, plan, or do anything about Vanderbilt until Texas A&M is over with."

According to the NCAA tournament selection committee, Alabama is the No. 7 overall team and seated on the two-seed line, which, if it stands, would be only the third time in program history that the Crimson Tide was ever seeded that high.

Oats is hopeful that this experience will help Alabama prepare for what it will face next month. The Crimson Tide hasn't gone past the second round of the NCAA tournament since 2004, when it lost in the Elite Eight to UConn, 87-71.

"I've coached in the NCAA Tournament and this is what you gotta do," Oats said. "You gotta play Thursday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday. Great preparation for a NCAA tournament run. If you wanna make it to the second weekend, you gotta win the first two games. We aren't going to get this setup the rest of the year unless something else goes wrong. So I think it's great practice for the first week of the NCAA tournament. You play one game, then you have a day off, and then you play another. If you can't win both, you aren't playing in that second weekend."