No. 9/9 Alabama Squares off Against No. 14/13 Houston in Saturday Night Showdown in Coleman Coliseum

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 9/9 Alabama returns to Coleman Coliseum for the first time since Nov. 19 when it squares off with the No. 14/13 Houston Cougars Saturday night at 9 p.m. CT on ESPN2. The Crimson Tide will make the return trip to Houston, Texas next season to conclude the home-and-home series, which was originally slated to begin in 2020 but had to be pushed back due to a Covid cancellation.

This marks the fifth time the two teams will square off on the hardwood, but first since Houston defeated Alabama in the Sun Bowl Tournament in El Paso, Texas on Dec. 29, 1979. The win improved the Cougars to 3-1 in four games played against the Crimson Tide, with all four contests coming at a neutral site.

The Tide is coming off an impressive 91-82 win over No. 3/3 Gonzaga in front of more than 18,000 fans – most of which were rooting for the Bulldogs – in Climate Pledge Arena for the Battle in Seattle last Saturday night. It marked Alabama's first road win over a top-five team since defeating then-No. 4 Mississippi State, 77-73, on Feb. 21, 2004 in Starkville, Miss.

The Broadcast

Saturday's game will be available on ESPN2 with Karl Ravech (play-by-play) and Jimmy Dykes (analyst) on the call
The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Chris Stewart (play-by-play), Bryan Passink (analyst) and Roger Hoover (sideline) on the call and Top Stipe (engineer) turning the dials. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Notes You Need To Know

The Crimson Tide has won 14 consecutive games inside Coleman Coliseum dating back to a 73-71 loss to Western Kentucky on Dec. 19, 2020. The streak began in the very next game vs. East Tennessee State (won, 85-69) on Dec. 22, 2020. The 14-straight home wins is the longest home winning streak since claiming a school-record 24-straight home wins from March of 2010 to December of 2011.
Saturday's game will be the second straight played against a team in the top 15, which marks the first time Alabama has faced consecutive top-15 non-conference opponents in more than 20 years. The last time it occurred back on Nov. 20 and Nov. 21, 2001 when the Crimson Tide fell to then-No. 5 Missouri (75-68) before topping then-No. 12 Memphis (81-70) in the Gaurdians Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
Alabama checked in at No. 15 in the NCAA's first NET Ranking of the season, announced Monday. Even more telling is the fact that the Crimson Tide, which ranks No. 1 in average opponent NET ranking, is the only team ranked among the top 180 of the latest NET Ranking that has yet to play a game against a Quad 4 opponent.
Houston is the second consecutive top-15 opponent the Crimson Tide will face. In fact, Alabama face a total of nine teams (12 games) that are currently ranked among the AP Top 25. In December alone, five of the six opponents are either ranked (Gonzaga, Houston and No. 13 Tennessee) or receiving votes to be ranked (Colorado State No. 26 and Memphis No. 32).
As a result of its win over the Bulldogs, Alabama made the largest leap by any team in the rankings released Monday. The Crimson Tide jumped seven spots, moving from No. 16 in the nation to No. 9 nationally in both the Associated Press and Ferris Mowers USA Today Coaches Top-25 polls. The Crimson Tide is one of seven SEC schools that are ranked in this week's AP poll, which leads all conferences.
The Crimson Tide leads the SEC in several categories: scoring offense (86.4), three pointers made (82) and attempted (236), threes made per game (10.3), three-point field goal percentage defense (.270), defensive rebounding (30.0). Nationally, Alabama ranks among the top 30 in the following: scoring offense (6th), total rebounds per game (43.3/9th), defensive rebounding (18th), three-point field goal percentage defense (24th) and blocked shots per game (5.6/24th).
According to KenPom.com, the Tide ranks among the top 25 in the nation in both offensive (10th) and defensive (22nd) efficiency in the most recent KenPom rankings (as of 12/9). UA also ranks No. 20 in the nation adjusted tempo (73.0) and 16th in average possession length (15.4), according to the same site
UP NEXT: The Tide will travel to take on the Memphis Tigers on Tuesday, Dec. 14, at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN.

About Alabama

Alabama is in its 109th season of basketball in 2021-22. The Tide's first season of hoops came in 1912-13. There was no season in 1943-44 due to World War II.
The Crimson Tide is led by three players who average double figures in Jaden Shackelford (19.3 ppg), Jahvon Quinerly (14.9 ppg) and Keon Ellis (12.1 ppg). The trio combines to account for 54 percent (46.3 of the 86.4 points per game average), 69 percent of the three-pointers made (57 of 82), 51 percent field goals made (128 of 253) and 55 percent of the total free throws made (57 of 103).
A pair of freshmen have also made their mark through the early portion of the schedule in guard JD Davison and center Charles Bediako. Davison, a consensus five star and McDonald's All-American, leads Alabama in assists (4.6 apg) while also ranking among the team leaders at 9.8 points and 4.8 rebounds per contest. Bediako has been a force on the inside, collecting 7.1 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks a game.
As a team, Alabama is averaging 86.4 points per contest and outscoring the competition by an average of 15.4 points per game (86.4-71.0). The Tide is averaging 10.3 threes made per game, while shooting 47.7 percent from the field, 34.7 percent from beyond the arc and 65.2 percent from the charity stripe. UA also owns a rebounding margin of +8.4 (43.3-34.9) for the year.
The Crimson Tide ranks 22nd nationally in defensive efficiency entering the contest. For the year, Alabama has held opponents to an average of 71.0 points per game while limiting foes to 41.7 percent shooting from the field and just 27.0 percent from beyond the arc, which ranks second in the SEC and 22nd in the nation.
Alabama was picked to finish second in the league in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Kentucky was the preseason favorite to win this year's regular season title, followed by the Tide, Arkansas, Tennessee and Auburn to round out the top five. Both Quinerly and Shackelford were named to the SEC Preseason First Team.
Alabama returns its top two scorers and 10 letterwinners from last season's SEC Championship team that went on to finish 27-6 overall and 16-2 in the SEC while claiming the 2021 SEC regular season and tournament championships.
UA won the program's eighth SEC regular season championship a year ago, finishing with a 16-2 league record which tied for the most wins in the conference in program history. In addition to claiming the 2021 crown, the Crimson Tide also claimed regular season titles in 1934, 1956, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1987 and 2002.
Alabama claimed its seventh SEC Tournament titles last year. It was the first tournament title by the Tide in 30 years, with the last coming in 1991. In all, the Tide has won 15 combined championships - the eight regular season titles ranking third-most and the seven tournament championships ranking second-best in the league.
The Tide holds an all-time record of 1,724-1,069-1 (.616), which includes an 815-629 (.565) record in SEC play. By capturing its 800th SEC win, Alabama joined Kentucky as the only two teams in conference history to reach the milestone. UA also became the third team in the SEC and 34th team in NCAA history to reach 1,700 program wins. Only Kentucky and Arkansas have more wins than the Crimson Tide.

About Houston

Houston comes into Saturday's showdown ranked No. 14 in the Associated Press and No. 13 in USA Today top 25 polls, which were both released Monday. The Cougars, one of three teams on Alabama's schedule that were in last year's NCAA Final Four (Gonzaga and Baylor), are riding a four-game winning streak to improve to 8-1 on the year, with lone loss coming to Wisconsin (65-63) back on Nov. 23 in the second round of the Maui Jim Maui Invitational
The Cougars rank second in the nation in scoring defense at 53.4 points per game and has held six opponents to under 50 points. The Cougars also rank seventh nationally in steals per game (11.0) and eighth in field goal percentage (.357). As a result of its stellar defense, Houston is outscoring the opposition by an average of 27.3 points per game (80.8-53.4) to rank third in the nation in the category.
On Sept. 9, 2021, the University of Houston accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 Conference. The Cougars joined along with BYU, Cincinnati and UCF to become part of the league as soon as the fall of 2023.
Houston was picked as the American Athletic Conference preseason favorite with guard Marcus Sasser being named to the Preseason All-Conference First Team. The Cougars are one of seven teams on UA's schedule that were picked to win their respective league: South Dakota State (Summit League), Iona (MAAC), Drake (MVC), Gonzaga (WCC), Houston (American), Colorado State (Mountain West) and Kentucky (SEC).
Sasser leads three Houston players in double figures entering the Alabama game, averaging team bests of 17.7 points and 2.6 steals per game. Sasser also tops the team in three-point shooting (44-of-68, .485) and field goals made (53) and attempted (110) entering Saturday's game. Meanwhile, guard Kyler Edwards is second on the team in scoring (13.0 ppg) and rebounding (5.9 rpg). Guard Tramon Mark also averages double digits at 11.8 ppg.
Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson is in his eighth season as the head coach of the Houston program and is in his 33rd season as a head coach. During his eight years in Houston, Sampson owns a record of 175-65 (.729) and became the fastest coach to reach 100 wins in school history (149 games). For his career, Sampson owns a record of 675-335 (.668), has been to 16 NCAA Tournaments, won five conference championships and four national coach of the year awards.

Bama Sweep

Following Alabama's upset win over then-No. 3 Gonzaga Dec. 4 in the Battle in Seattle, the Crimson Tide swept the league's weekly awards as Jaden Shackelford was named the Southeastern Conference's Player of the Week and JD Davison earned the league's Freshman of the Week
In addition to his conference award, Shackelford was also named the NCAA.com March Madness National Player of the Week
It marks just the second time in program history that the Crimson Tide has swept the league's weekly honors dating back to the 1990-91 season when the SEC began what was then called the Rookie of the Week award
The only other occurrence came during the week of Feb. 17, 2020 when Kira Lewis Jr. (player of the week) and Shackelford (freshman of the week) earned the recognition

600-Win Coaches

When Alabama takes on Houston, Kelvin Sampson will be the fifth head coach over the Tide's last six games that boasts more than 20 years of head coaching experience and 600 wins
The only coach that did not meet the mark over UA's last six contests was Drake head coach Darian Devries
Below is a list of the last six contests and coaches faced over that span:

Date	Opponent	Coach	Career W-L	Years
11/19	Oakland	Greg Kampe	649-497	38 Seasons
11/25	Iona	Rick Pitino	667-276	34 Seasons
11/28	Miami	Jim Larranaga	677-467	38 Seasons
12/4	Gonzaga	Mark Few	638-127	23 Seasons
12/11	Houston	Kelvin Sampson	675-335	33 Seasons

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