Nate Oats

Alabama is coming off the program’s first Final Four run and hoping for even more this season. Coach Nate Oats' team opens the season ranked No. 2 in the AP Top 25 and favored to win the Southeastern Conference championship. Expectations soared when All-America guard Mark Sears and forward Grant Nelson both opted to return.

Alabama is the Southeastern Conference favorite in basketball, not football. John Calipari is leading a team with high expectations, just not at Kentucky. And Texas and Oklahoma are along for the ride now, too.

Two-time reigning national champion UConn is among the teams that have dramatically changed their rosters with transfers during college basketball's open portal window. But, fans of the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball will see some key players wearing different uniforms, thanks to that same transfer portal. The changes follow Alabama’s first ever appearance in the Final Four.

The University of Alabama basketball team is losing players to the NBA Draft and the transfer portal. It may soon gain a point guard.

Alabama men’s basketball coach Nate Oats reassured fans in Tuscaloosa over rumors he might leave the Crimson Tide for Kentucky.

Alabama coach Nate Oats has deep connections to the man he will be coaching against in the Final Four. Oats and UConn's Dan Hurley have known each other for more than a decade, going back to the days when Oats was a high school coach in the Detroit area.

It feels like UConn vs. the field in the men's Final Four, and the advanced stats show the defending champions have no glaring weaknesses. Alabama plays the Huskies on Saturday.

The average price paid for a ticket on the resale market this week was twice as high for the NCAA women's Final Four compared with that for the men's semifinals, according to a technology company that analyzes prices across multiple platforms. That means seats Alabama’s appearance in the men’s Final Four, along with UConn, Purdue, and NC State are going for less by comparison.

Nate Oats admits it: He whiffed on Mark Sears out of high school.It's OK, though. So did every other major college coach.It is why Alabama's undersized, high-scoring point guard wound up at Ohio University before finally getting a chance to return to his home state.

Alabama needed more bodies. Connecticut and Purdue needed the right fit. North Carolina State had big holes to fill in the backcourt. They all mined the transfer portal effectively enough that those pieces are key reasons that they've reached the Final Four, headed to the desert with a chance to hoist a trophy.