Alabama has national championship aspirations after such a successful season. However, they didn’t expect to face such a struggle in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Alabama survived Robert Morris, but it was no easy task. Robert Morris took the lead with under ten minutes to play in the game. The Crimson Tide fought back for a 90-81 win, but the signs are troubling. This would be the easiest game in the national championship run, so will they survive? Is Alabama destined to be an early exit? What is working in their favor to avoid an early upset? Let’s explore these questions and Alabama’s path to a deep run.<\/p>\n
Alabama looked to be in deep trouble. Then, Grant Nelson<\/a> subbed in. Nelson is a great glue guy who makes all the important, winning plays for Alabama. He isn’t the star, but he certainly provides them with anything the team needs. In a game where Alabama couldn’t shake the Colonials, Nelson brought them winning plays. Whether it be a steal, a good pass, or a defensive contest, Nelson brought an important confidence to the floor for the Crimson Tide. Alabama got past Robert Morris because of Nelson.<\/p>\n He injured his knee in the last game, causing him to miss the first 30+ minutes of the game against RMU. They need him healthy to make a run. They were down one point when he entered the game before winning by nine points. If Alabama hopes to advance past St. Mary’s or Vanderbilt on Sunday, they will need Nelson to give them more minutes. Conversely, if Nelson can’t give them more minutes, they will be on serious upset alert.<\/p>\n Sometimes, the first-round test in the NCAA Tournament eliminates a team. Other times, it sparks a deep run. McNeese stunned Clemson<\/a> in an upset on Thursday. Princeton stunned Arizona in the same year that Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the world with a win over Purdue. However, Iona tested UConn in 2023 before the Huskies steamrolled the entire field en route to a dominant national championship run. This may be the test that sparks the Crimson Tide.<\/p>\n Playing in a tight game and avoiding the upset gives you perspective: “We were a few plays away from going home.” Nothing makes the team appreciate their NCAA Tournament lives more than a near-loss. Alabama survived Robert Morris on Friday. There is no other word to describe it in a tournament that repeats an all-important mantra: survive and advance. Alabama survived. Now, they must use the new perspective to motivate their future games.<\/p>\n Alabama knows they need to improve on their poor performance. They survived Robert Morris, but they won’t be able to play that way against better opponents. Robert Morris is 139th in the NET rankings<\/a>. This is not a team that should be testing a championship contender, yet the Crimson Tide allowed 81 points. The defense is not good enough. The intensity on the boards wasn’t there. Alabama’s defensive efficiency is 33rd<\/a>, a number that normally doesn’t lead to championships. They will need to improve that during the tournament and get healthy to avoid an upset during the first weekend. Alabama won’t beat Duke<\/a> playing like this, so Crimson Tide fans hope this sparks a deep run rather than an early upset.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Photo credit: \u00a9 Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Alabama has national championship aspirations after such a successful season. However, they didn’t expect to face such a struggle in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Alabama survived Robert Morris, but it was no easy task. Robert Morris took the lead with under ten minutes to play in the game. The Crimson Tide fought […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":129948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773],"tags":[50008,1504,1436],"class_list":["post-129939","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","tag-2025-ncaa-tournament","tag-alabama-crimson-tide","tag-sec-basketball"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129939"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":129949,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129939\/revisions\/129949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Alabama Survived Robert Morris: A Test Often Sparks a Team<\/h3>\n
The Last Word on Alabama’s Tournament Future<\/h3>\n