Alabama Football Pulling Hard for Alabama Basketball in Final Four

The Alabama football team is rooting hard for the basketball team in its first Final Four appearance.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— When the Alabama men's basketball team takes the floor for its first Final Four game in program history, count the Crimson Tide football team among its supporters.

Offensive coordinator Nick Sheridan, who hails from Michigan, said Thursday that he caught a game some years ago during basketball head coach Nate Oats' tenure at Romulus High School. "Romulus was loaded," Sheridan said. "It was a big deal for even local high school kids to go watch.

"I was a third baseman [at Saline High School], so I don't know why I went to the basketball game," he quipped. During the week, the coaching staff used forward Grant Nelson's Sweet 16 performance against North Carolina as an example in a unit meeting of a 1-0 mentality. "What a great job Coach [Oats] has done, and the staff, and most importantly, the players," said Sheridan. "[Mark] Sears was lights out, boys. I mean, it was unbelievable, right?" He added that the team is pulling hard for its fellow athletes.

Defensive lineman Tim Keenan III shared his own words of support on Wednesday. "I wish y'all the best. Just keep doing what y'all doing. Ain't gonna tell y'all nothing different. Just know I'm rooting for y'all, the whole state rooting for y'all." Keenan said he loves how Sears has continued beating the odds. He predicts a Crimson Tide win. Defensive coordinator Kane Wommack got to know Oats a number of years ago, making the connection through former Indiana head football coach Tom Allen, whom Oats went to the same college as.

"Always been impressed with him," Wommack said Wednesday. "It is fun to watch people that do things at a really high level and do things the right way have success... You see a bunch of guys that are seniors now, that have worked a long time to get to this point, to be rewarded on the back end of their career is really special. Excited to see them."

The fourth-seeded Crimson Tide takes on No.1-seed UConn at 7:49 p.m. CT on Saturday night at State Farm Stadium, the home of the Arizona Cardinals. The last time the Glendale venue hosted a Final Four, Alabama didn't even make the NCAA Tournament. Seven years later, the team is competing for a national title, which would be another first to punctuate the Final Four berth. Neither the Crimson Tide men's or women's team has appeared in the national championship game. The women's team made it to the national semifinals in 1994 before falling by three points against Louisiana Tech.