Alabama Basketball's March Miracle: Rallying from Deficit

0:00On March 20, Alabama's Crimson Tide men's basketball team survived a scare in the first round of the NCAA tournament, rallying from an early deficit to beat Hofstra in advance to the round of 32. Trailing 2018 just 11 minutes in, the tide looked outmatched after being outshot and out rebounded early on. That slow start echoed their SEC tournament loss to Ole Miss a week earlier, where they dug a similar double-digit hole and couldn't climb out. This time, though, Alabama flipped the script with real urgency, grabbing a halftime lead, stretching it to 10 points early in the second half, and dominating the final four minutes to seal the win. Players pointed to lessons learned from past mistakes, tightening up defense and executing better after shaking off Hofstra's hot 16-2 run. The team entered the game banged up, missing a top score amid a season full of ups and downs, including a 4-4 SEC start that coach Nate. Oats called disappointing. His do-or-die message about no bad minutes in March finally seemed to click.

1:04Now, with momentum building, Alabama heads into the next round ready to build on this hard fought turnaround.