No. 20/19 Alabama Hosts Longwood in Season Opener

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Year four of the Nate Oats era will officially tip off Monday night when the No. 20/19 Alabama Crimson Tide welcomes the Longwood Lancers to Coleman Coliseum. The contest is set to tipoff at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be on the SEC Network+.

The Broadcast

Monday's game will be available on the SEC Network+ with Roger Hoover (play-by-play) and Richard Hendrix (analyst) on the call.

The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call, while Tom Stipe (engineer) is turning the dials. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Notes You Need To Know

During the non-conference slate Alabama will play four teams that are predicted to finish first in its conference, starting with Longwood, who was picked No. 1 in the Big South Preseason poll.
The Crimson Tide enters the year ranked No. 20 in the Associated Press Preseason Top 25 and No. 19 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Alabama begins the season ranked in the AP Preseason poll for the second straight year, checking in at No. 14 last year.
Alabama welcomes the highest ranked recruiting class in program history, including McDonald's High School All-Americans Jaden Bradley and Brandon Miller, along with four-start prospects Noah Clowney and Rylan Griffen.
The Tide are one of seven schools in the country (Arizona, Creighton, Duke, Kentucky, North Carolina and UCLA) to have a player named on the Bob Cousy, Julius Erving and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar watch lists this preseason.
The 2022-23 Crimson Tide roster features four McDonald's All-Americans. In addition to Bradley (2022) and Miller (2022), Nimari Burnett (2020) and Quinerly (2019) also earned the national honor. It is the most McDonald's All-Americans on the same roster in program history.
In addition to the four freshmen, Alabama also added transfers Mark Sears from Ohio, Dom Welch from St. Bonaventure and Nick Pringle from Dodge City CC, who was rated as the No. 1 JUCO power forward prospect in the country.
After having the No. 1 strength of schedule in the nation a year ago, Alabama's non-conference slate will be stacked once again as it features nine teams (out of 13 games) that played in last year's NCAA Tournament. In all, the Tide will face 10 teams that are either ranked or receiving votes in the preseason top-25 poll.

About Longwood

Longwood was picked to finish No. 1 in the league with 16 of a possible 20 first-place votes in the 10-team field. The Lancers return nine letterwinners and 74 percent of their scoring from last season's team that went 15-1 in conference play.
On top of the team honors, Isaiah Wilkins and DeShaun Wade earned spots on the Big South Preseason All-Conference Teams. Wilkins was named to the first team while Wade was named to the second team, marking the first time the team has had two preseason all-conference selections.
Wilkins becomes the first player in team history to garner a spot on the Big South Preseason All-Conference First Team. The reigning Big South Tournament MVP was one of Longwood's most consistent players last season, averaging 12.7 points per game. He tallied double figures in every game of Longwood's run through the Big South Tournament last season and scored in double figures 23 times.
Meanwhile, Wade served as Longwood's top perimeter defender while also making it rain from three all season. The Virginia Beach native hit .448 (74-165) of his triples, good for fourth all-time in the program's single-season records. For the year, Wade averaged 11.8 points per game while topping double figures 20 times.
In four seasons at the helm, head coach Griff Aldrich has led the Lancers to a bevy of milestones and program firsts, including the program's first Division I NCAA Tournament appearance, a Big South Championship and a Big South regular season title. Plus, the program has set and then broken records for Big South wins as part of one of the most drastic turnarounds in all of college basketball.

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