Alabama Crimson Tide

From Hoopedia

Alabama's athletic teams are known as the Crimson Tide. The school fields varsity teams in the NCAA's Division I and is a member of the Southeastern Conference (Western Division). The Crimson Tide basketball teams play in the 14,619-seat Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

Alabama maintains athletic rivalries with Auburn University, the University of Tennessee and Mississippi State University. The rivalry with Auburn is especially heated.

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Men's Basketball

Alabama's men's basketball program has been overshadowed for most of its history by football even though it trails only Kentucky in SEC basketball wins, SEC tournament titles and regular season titles. In recent years, the men's basketball program has again risen in stature nationally under head coach Mark Gottfried, achieving a No. 1 national ranking briefly in 2003. Further, UA has once again become a regular conference basketball contender, much as it was in the 80s and early 90s under the direction of Wimp Sanderson and the 70s under C. M. Newton. Alabama has 7 NCAA Sweet 16 appearances and in the 2003-04 season, the men's team reached the Elite Eight in the NCAA tournament; they ended up losing to eventual champion, Connecticut.

In 1968, legendary football coach Paul "Bear" Bryant, who had been the coach for the University of Kentucky's football team during C. M. Newton's playing days, called Kentucky coach Adolph Rupp looking for someone to turn around the University of Alabama's basketball program. Rupp recommended Newton, who after twelve seasons at Transylvania, left Lexington for Tuscaloosa. In twelve seasons at Alabama, Newton led the Crimson Tide to a record of 211-123. The Crimson Tide won three straight Southeastern Conference titles under Newton (1974, 1975, and 1976), the only program besides the University of Kentucky to accomplish this feat. Newton also guided Alabama to four NIT and two NCAA tournament berths, prompting the school to name a recruiting suite in his honor in 2006.

Just as he did at Transylvania, Newton recruited the Alabama's first black player, Wendell Hudson, in 1969, integrating his second team in as many coaching stops.

In 1960, Wimp Sanderson became a graduate assistant under C. M. Newton and in 1961 he was made a full time assistant. He served in this capacity for 20 years until 1981 when he was named Alabama's head basketball coach. In ten years as head coach his teams averaged 21.8 wins a year, with a 267-119 record, and they won 4 SEC tournaments. They played in one NIT and eight NCAA tournaments making the "Sweet 16" five times. Sanderson is the only coach in Alabama history to win 200 or more games in his first 10 years. He was the SEC Coach of the Year in 1987, 1989 and 1990, and was the National Coach of the Year in 1987.

Mark Gottfried is the current head coach and came aboard in 1999. Gottfried played 3 seasons of basketball at Alabama, and the Crimson Tide advanced to the Sweet Sixteen in each of those seasons. He was hired by Alabama in March of 1998 after coaching at Murray State for three seasons.

Coach Gottfried has made steady progress since obtaining the coaching reigns in the spring of 1998. His leadership has propelled Alabama Men’s Basketball back into the national spotlight. Alabama's best years during his tenure have been the 2001-2002 season, when the Tide won the SEC regular season championship, and the 2003-2004 season, when they advanced to the Elite Eight. For his efforts he was named SEC coach of the year by the AP and his fellow coaches.

Gottfried has led the Tide to 5 consecutive trips to the NCAA Tournament, as of the 2005-2006 season. That streak ended in 2007, when the Tide had to settle for a trip to the NIT.