In ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi’s most recent bracket, the Alabama Crimson Tide have made it back into the Next Four Out of the NCAA tournament, having dropped from that position earlier in the conference season.
Lunardi’s bracket has three Southeastern Conference teams in the NCAA tournament: Florida as a 1 seed, Missouri as a 9 seed and Ole Miss as a 11 seed. Kentucky is part of the First Four Out, joined by Temple, Indiana State and Maryland. The Last Four In are Virginia, Arizona State, Villanova and California.
Alabama is joined by St. John’s, Southern Miss and BYU in the Next Four Out.
Alabama coach Anthony Grant is not worried about his team’s standing in the NCAA tournament scene, but more concerned with the SEC tournament where the winner will receive an automatic spot in the NCAA field.
“We’re excited to be in a position where we control our own destiny going into the conference tournament,” Grant said. “Right now, the focus for us is to take it one game at a time and try to understand what we have to do each individual game.”
However, Grant is aware his team is in a tight situation.
“When you look at some of the losses we’ve had over the course of the season, we’re not in a position to take anyone lightly,” Grant said. “You have to come and be ready to play. Hopefully our guys are intelligent enough to understand that what we’ve done over the course of the year, we can’t afford to do that. We have to show up prepared and be ready to play our best.
“We can get beat by anyone.”
You can see Lunardi’s complete bracket by clicking here.
