20 years later, can Alabama basketball wear the No. 1 bull's-eye this time? | Goodbread
The Associated Press pushed a button on Monday, and (poof!) its latest basketball poll, with Alabama ranked No. 1, was everywhere in an instant. But the poll might as well have been released in Knoxville, Tenn., printed on a crimson blanket and flashed like a matador in front of the next bull on the Alabama schedule: 10th-ranked Tennessee.
Nothing like a freshly minted No.1-ranked team to stoke the flames of a rivalry.
Alabama's impressive 77-69 road win at Auburn on Saturday combined with a loss incurred by previous No. 1 Purdue to vault the Crimson Tide to the top. Alabama is also ranked No. 1 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll for the first time. It's the ultimate midseason sign of respect, and one that the Crimson Tide (22-3, 12-0 SEC) deserves, given the schedule it's faced.
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Beyond that, however, it only puts a bull's-eye on Alabama's back for as long as it holds the distinction. And if coach Nate Oats wants to offer his players any perspective on it, he can simply give the floor to assistant coach Antoine Pettway. Twenty years ago, Pettway played for the only other Alabama team to see the view from the top of the polls − the 2002-03 team, which held the No. 1 ranking for two weeks in late December − so he knows something about the pitfalls that come with the status.
And that team most definitely pitfell.
At this time two decades ago, Pettway and his teammates were reeling from a 75-56 loss at Florida, their fifth SEC loss in a six-game stretch, that knocked Alabama completely out of the AP Top 25 just six weeks after it was crowned No. 1. Coach Mark Gottfried had a talented collection of players led by point guard Mo Williams, along with a gifted wing in Kennedy Winston and a workhorse big man in Erwin Dudley. Pettway was a part-time starter, averaging 6.3 points and an assist rate (2.4 per game) that ranked second only to Williams. But after a 9-0 start to the year put Alabama at No. 1, it suffered an abysmal collapse in losing 12 of its last 20 games.
One and done in the SEC Tournament, an 82-69 loss to Vanderbilt.
One and done in the NCAA Tournament, a 67-62 loss to Indiana.
In fairness, that Alabama team never should have been No. 1. That was plain enough in how it finished the season, although it certainly fell short of its potential. A 9-0 start simply didn't shine enough light on its flaws.
This year's Alabama team, by contrast, has forged a more legitimate No. 1 ranking with a 25-game body of work. Oats' team is 7-2 against Quad 1 opponents, and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament is in reach. But that doesn't mean it can't learn something from the Alabama team (or more directly, from Pettway) that came 20 years before it.
Tennessee would like nothing more than to put a No. 1-ranked elephant head on its wall Wednesday night.
And as long as Alabama is sitting at No. 1, every team it plays will be looking to do the same.
Reach Chase Goodbread at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball has No. 1 target on its back. How will it respond?
