After its biggest win of the season, Alabama hopes to keep rolling against another pair of rival Tigers with his participation on the…..

Wednesday night’s win over Auburn was a major one for the Alabama Crimson Tide (13-6, 5-1 SEC; NET: 8; Kenpom: 8) for a bevy of reasons. For one, it’s always nice to remind Little Brother which program in the state is actually the basketball school. It was also the Tide’s biggest win of the season by a good margin and put Alabama back on top of the SEC standings. If the tournament started in Nashville today, the Tide would be the one-seed for the third time in four years – Kentucky-type stuff. But most importantly, it was the kind of game that a team needs to build confidence in itself and learn how to close out tight games down the stretch. We say a bit of that in Starkville a couple of weeks back, but the Bulldogs aren’t quite conference contenders.

Additionally, I think Nate Oats is starting to figure out his rotation. The unit of Mark Sears, Latrell Wrightsell, Rylan Griffen, Jarin Stevenson, and Grant Nelson might just be the best five Alabama has this year. Three dynamic scoring guards who also play the best defense of the backcourt options to go along with two near seven-footers who seem to be figuring it out a little bit. Nelson’s heroics late in the game the other night were evident, but Stevenson quietly had a great game as well. In terms of raw size and athleticism, Stevenson’s ceiling offers Alabama its best big in terms of providing some interior resistance defensively and on the boards – provided that things are starting to click, and Wednesday night’s performance was the beginning of a strong finish to the season. Being able to utilize Aaron Estrada as a secondary scoring option as a guard who can play any spot in the backcourt and make plays is a gift. And when you combine that with Sam Walters operating as an elite spot-up shooter and both Mo’s and Nick Pringle as depth and size in the frontcourt, that’s a heck of a squad.

There’s still a lot of ball to be played though, and that begins tonight as the LSU Tigers come to town (11-8, 3-3 SEC; NET: 91; Kenpom: 81). This series has definitely lost some heat since Will Wade was let go, and Nate Oats has absolutely dominated LSU, but second year head coach Matt McMahon is starting to turn things around in Baton Rouge. This is still not a good team, to be sure, but they are playing decent and competitive ball now, and Alabama can’t afford to overlook them.