TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 24/24 Alabama men’s basketball team will host the second game of its four-game homestand to start the 2023-24 season as the Crimson Tide will face Indiana State at 7 p.m. CT Friday night at Coleman Coliseum.
The Tide has currently won 16-straight games at Coleman Coliseum, which ranks as the seventh-longest home winning streak in Division I, winning by an average of 25.0 points per contest.
Alabama is ranked No. 24 in both the AP and USA Today Coaches Poll, as UA is ranked in the Top 25 for the 20th straight week.
The Broadcast
Friday’s game is set for a 7 p.m. CT tipoff and will be aired on the SEC Network+ with Gray Robertson (play-by-play) and Richard Hendrix (analyst) on the call.
The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Jim Dunaway (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call, while Todd Whinery (engineer) is turning the dials. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.
Notes You Need To Know
- Alabama has a 16-game winning streak at home, which ranks as the seventh-longest streak in the country
- During Alabama’s 16-game home winning streak, UA has won by double-digits 12 times and by an average of 25.0 points per contest
- UA has won 15-straight non-conference games at Coleman Coliseum (last defeat was vs. Western Kentucky on Dec. 19, 2020)
- In the last four seasons, Alabama has won a league-best 77 games overall and 41 SEC contests
- Senior transfer Grant Nelson was named to the Naismith Trophy Preseason Watch List, which annually recognizes the top player in college basketball and the Karl Malone Award Watch List for the top power forward in Division I
- Nelson earned First Team All-SEC Preseason honors becoming the first UA player to do so since 2021 (Jahvon Quinerly and Jaden Shackelford)
- Alabama’s trio of Aaron Estrada, Nelson and Mark Sears have each scored over 1,000 points throughout their college career
- Ranked as the No. 1 power forward in the 2024 class, Jarin Stevenson reclassified after being named the 2023 North Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year
- Alabama captured both the SEC regular season and tournament championships in the same year in two of the last three years, the first time that’s happened in program history
- In his first five years at Alabama, head coach Oats has won 93 games which is the most by a coach in his first four years at Alabama
- Oats became the first coach in UA history to win multiple SEC Regular Season and Tournament titles for the first time in program history
About Indiana State
- Indiana State placed three on the Missouri Valley preseason All-Conference team, as Julian Larry and Robbie Avila were both named to the conference’s Second Team, while newcomer Isaiah Swope earned Third Team honors
- The Sycamores were selected fourth in the conference’s preseason poll finishing behind Drake, Northern Iowa and Bradley
- This will be the first meeting between Indiana State and Alabama
- Indiana State’s 23 wins were the most by the Sycamores since 2013-14 and tied for the most since 1978-79, while the 13 conference wins were the most by a Sycamore team dating back to the 1999-2000 season (third-most in program history)
- Head coach Josh Schertz enters his third season as the head coach in 2023-24 after guiding Indiana State to a 23-13 record with a 13-7 mark in Missouri Valley Conference action last season – a 12-win improvement overall and nine-win improvement in the Valley from year one to year two
- Schertz’s winning percentage of .784 (372-102) ranks sixth-best among all Division I active coaches with a minimum 10 seasons
- After Indiana State’s 90-60 season opener win over Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Xavier Bledson ranks No. 1 in the country in assists per game (11.0)
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