Alabama MBB Faces "Maturity Test" In Road Trip to LSU

After Alabama fell to the Florida Gators on February 1, the Crimson Tide seems to have 'flipped a switch', winning five straight games against Texas A&M, Auburn, Ole Miss, South Carolina, and Arkansas. Alabama rose from ninth in the SEC men's basketball standings to now tied for second, with a chance over the next three games to take sole possession of second place behind Florida. It starts on Saturday, when Nate Oats and crew travel to Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers. On Friday, Oats was asked if Saturday's date with the Tigers would be a "maturity test" for his team.

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"Yeah, I told them that," Oats said on Friday. "Tomorrow will be February 21, we're into the last week of February. You want to be hitting your peak come into February, March, and we're here. This is the last week of February. So, are we going to be mature enough to finish the season well going into tournament play without a league championship in our control? We could win out and still not win the league.

"So, we're playing for pride. We're playing for seeding, we're playing to hit our peak. We still haven't had a whole healthy roster, hardly at all this year. So, can we get our chemistry right? Can we see what our full potentials have been or still is moving forward with everybody? But yeah, I agree, it's going to be a maturity test."

The injuries have hurt Alabama this season, with every scholarship player besides Houston Mallette missing at least one game. Some time off could help the Tide, as was seen with Latrell Wrightsell Jr. during SEC play. Wrightsell missed three games for Alabama after the Tide fell to Vanderbilt on January 7. Since returning against Tennessee on January 24, he's shooting 21.4% from three and 48.1% from the floor. If the Tide can finish as a top-four seed in the SEC tournament by winning out, it will see six days in between the regular season finale at Auburn and the start of the SEC tournament.

No. 25 Alabama faces LSU tomorrow, Saturday, February 21. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. CT.

Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.