When you think of the best college basketball states, you usually think of North Carolina (UNC, Duke, NC State, Wake Forest), Kentucky (UK, Louisville), Indiana (Purdue, Indiana), Michigan (Michigan State, Michigan), Ohio (Ohio State, Xavier, Cincinnati), or states like California or Texas, which have large populations and numerous institutions to pick from. However, this season, the epicenter of college basketball might be in Alabama or perhaps even next door in Mississippi. Both are relatively average to small states with just a few Division 1 institutions by comparison.
Both states will have multiple programs loaded with incredible amounts of talent on the hardwood. If we were talking about football, it might make more sense, but it seems these basketball programs know how to rally NIL money, overlook coaches’ off-court issues, and it’s paying off. These SEC schools are all stacked with talent according to our model, featuring the top 2 players in the nation and 20 of the top 300 players across four programs. All four programs are ranked in our top 18, and based on the metric of returning proven talent solely all 4 are in the top 10. Not bad for the 4 programs who have a combined previously for 3 Final Fours ever. However two of those are recent with Auburn and Alabama going in 2019 and 2024. Alabama, Auburn, and Ole Miss likely have 3 of the top 10 or 15 coaches in the nation as well.
Even UAB, fresh off an NCAA appearance as a 12 seed, returns the 51st best player in our model, Yaxel Lendeborg. They could easily make it back to the tournament as a 12th or better seed again. Samford, also a tournament team and a top 80 program last year only losing to Kansas by 4 points, is in a rebuilding mode but remains noteworthy. It should be a fun year in Alabama-sippi especially with the programs facing each other.
