What Alabama Players Learned from Early Exit in SEC Tournament

The opening game of the NCAA tournament provides a similar setting for the Crimson Tide as Alabama prepares to face 13-seed Hofstra in Tampa.

Mar 13, 2026; Nashville, TN, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide guard Labaron Philon (0) dribbles the ball past Mississippi Rebels guard Ilias Kamardine (6) during the first half at Bridgestone Arena. | Steve Roberts-Imagn Images

TAMPA, Fla.–– Alabama is in a familiar setting to just one week ago. The Crimson Tide is a top-four seed facing a double-digit seed in its opening round of a tournament. It didn't work out so well for Alabama last week as then 2-seed Alabama lost to 15-seed Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.

"We just learned that we can’t overlook anyone," Alabama forward London Jemison said. "Everybody’s good. We’re playing this late, so everybody’s great. We’ve just got to go out here and give everybody the upmost respect and be ready to play.”

Now, 4-seed Alabama (23-9) will face 13-seed Hofstra (24-10) in the Round of 64 in the NCAA tournament on Friday at 2:15 p.m.

"We didn’t live up to the standard of Alabama," Crimson Tide guard Amari Allen said. "We let ourselves down. We can’t come out there again like that, or we’ll get sent home. So I feel like we’re ready to play. We had a good week of practice.”

The Crimson Tide has exactly a week in between games, so it had plenty of time to prepare for the Hofstra Pride. Alabama star guard Labaron Philon Jr. said Nate Oats designed practice to have more of a player versus player element, and that helped ignite the team.

"I think once you do that late in the season, it's really just iron sharpens iron time, and everybody is getting ready to put on their best performances," Philon said. "We're just ready to see what our guys have left in the tank to just pour it all in for this last run

Against Ole Miss, Alabama never led and found itself facing double-digit deficits early in the first half. The Crimson Tide cut into the lead late in the game but could never make a big enough push to take the lead. Alabama doesn't want to get off to slow starts in the NCAA tournament.

"We definitely just learned about starting off right, respecting everybody, respecting your opponents," Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. said. "Kinda what I said about not taking a day for granted… We understand that everything has to come to an end at one point, and we’re grateful for this moment right now. We’ll give it our all, and if we give it our all, I feel like there’s no team in the country that can beat us.”

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