Welcome to the 2024-2025 season. “Where is BB4,” you ask? Well, he's still there, but he's putting the stem on the cherry with another baby in the house and his job is becoming more and more difficult and responsible. That's why I'm doing these previews at least this year.

This is the Tide's second scheduled battle against a known opponent in an undisclosed location. The no. 2 Crimson Tide face the Memphis Tigers in Huntsville, long known as a fertile recruiting ground and a convenient three-hour drive for both fan bases. However, make no mistake; This will be the Tide's home court.

No. 2 Alabama

The Crimson Tide enter this season with their highest preseason ranking ever, fresh off their first Final Four berth, and with a stacked roster that includes their highest-ranked recruit of all time… and led by a coach who now among the top five highest paid in the country.

It's safe to say that expectations for this program have increased significantly during Nate Oat's five-plus year tenure. And with the deepest bench in the country, the goals are clear: reduce them – all of them: from the NIL classic to One Shining Moment. And The Tide are not afraid to express this ambition.

Of course, to get there, they must first complete a tough 30-game schedule. The first stop: the Memphis Tigers. However, their first goal is to get healthy and then hit with a team that has one of the most talented starting lineups in the country. Youngblood is out, Trelly is probably out, no word on the 'stache. So Alabama enters with two (maybe three) projected starters out; Same as last week when a new-look Bama squad KenPom No. 44 Wake Forest blew up.

We don't have any meaningful stats yet, but the Tide are ranked 4th in KenPom, with the projected No. 1 offense and No. 30 defense (which we believe will be in the top 10 by the end of the season ). “Bama is projected to be the third-fastest team in the country and has a projected efficiency margin of +25.66 – the highest in program history.”

Evan Miya is ranked 3rd overall at Bama, with the 3rd best squad, a projected 10th in pace, 1st in offense and 16th in defense.

Torvik is less optimistic about the Tide and sees Alabama finishing 4th in the conference and 9th overall. The offense should be in 4th place and the defense should be slightly better (27th). Still, his rating indicates the Tide ranks 58th in terms of talent, behind teams like Arkansas and Ole Miss. Given the forecasts, I expect him to move away from this assessment by the end of the year. According to its schedule chart, Alabama finished 11-7 in SEC play and 20-11 overall: That would mean Alabama would lose essentially every quality game on its very brutal schedule. With that in mind, perhaps this isn't too trite nine Teams are projected to be in the top 10% on offense and eight are projected to be in the top 10% on defense — in the SEC alone.

It's a different conference for sure, folks. From top to bottom, that is The High-End Coach Destination: Oats, Pearl, Cal, Beard, Barnes and Buzz alone are A-listers. There is a great middle class of people like Jans, Mark Terry, Porter Moser and Mark Pope. And then the “end” of the league is filled with up-and-coming players like Todd Golden in Florida and Lamont Paris in South Carolina.

And the change happened so quickly, too – Barnes (2015), Cal (Methuselah) and Pearl (2014) are the only ones who haven't been hired in the last five seasons.

Brutally.

N/R Memphis Tigers

Like other teams loaded with NBA talent, the Tigers have replaced much of their roster this season: UM lost three coaches and has nine new faces in the Bluff City. It feels like a pivotal year for Penny Hardaway. The introduction of elite classes was not the problem; it is everything else. Last year, for example, it was a horrific series of injuries that doomed Memphis, as well as a season-ending collapse. UM had the 14th-toughest schedule before conference play and got off to a good start at 15-2, but finished 11-7 in a weak AAC and missed the tournament.

But fortunately for UM, the NCAA issues have finally been sorted out (with a predictable slap on the wrist), and that's where the focus should be Only Basketball… that's how the 901 likes it best. For Penny's sake, they'd better focus on getting some dubs. Now in his seventh season, the homegrown son is under a lot of pressure to finally make some noise and elevate his alma mater, always one of the country's potential sleeping giants.

We usually say this about Alabama football, but it's also true for the Tigers in Spades: Lots of talent and potential, little experience. UM lost 7 of its 8 top scorers from last season: only Jourdain returns.

So has Penny stocked the cupboard with his usual supply of blue chips? Not quite. Sensing he was in for a must-win season, Hardaway left hard into the portal. How heavy? Check this out:

• Texas guard Tyrese Hunter
• Tulsa guard PJ Haggerty
• Wichita State guard Colby Rogers
• George Mason guards Baraka Okojie
• UTSA guard PJ Carter
• SMU forward Tyreek Smith
• Ole Miss center Moussa Cisse and
• Illinois Center Dain Dainja.

This influx of experienced talent – at almost every position – is perhaps why Torvik ranked the Tigers 32nd in the preseason (30th offense, 47th defense). KenPom has about the same UM: 43rd overall – 16th in pace, 46th in offense, 44th in defense. Miya seemed to think that most of the transfers weren't quite as good as advertised, and has the Tigers 53rd in his rankings: 61st in defense, 56th in offense, although the pace is expected to be a little slower (25th).

So what do we expect here? If it's anything like previous games between Alabama and Memphis, you'll see a lot of transition basketball and pace. Memphis has beaten Alabama at the post in recent years with its much larger frontcourt – and based on the transfers of Mousse and Dain, that again appears to be the Tigers' strategy. So this will be a good test for Alabama's new centers and forwards and also to see how far Big Mo has come.

Look for Alabama to continue to work on their rotation and put an emphasis on defensive rebounding while UM works on just building some familiarity with each other at the pace of the game.

After this song, however, the votes are over… well, at least the ones that don't count on the record. On November 4th, the Crimson Tide will usher in what will hopefully be a special season.

The game begins tonight at 7:00 pm CT and can be streamed on ESPN+.

Roll Tide

Want to know the Tide's schedule before they do?

Middle major:

Power Conference opponents:

SEC Schedule: