Men's Basketball Looks to Improve to 3-0 in the SEC Saturday Night at Mississippi State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's basketball team looks to improve to 3-0 in the Southeastern Conference as the Crimson Tide travels to Starkville, Miss., to face Mississippi State Saturday night at Humphrey Coliseum.

For the second straight game, the Crimson Tide will face the SEC's top scoring defense as the Bulldogs are allowing a league-best 63.7 points per game, which ranks No. 24 in the country. In the four contests at Mississippi State under Nate Oats, games have been decided by an average of 6.3 points.

The Broadcast

Saturday's game is set for a 7:30 p.m. CT tipoff and will be aired on the SEC Network with Dave Neal (play-by-play) and Jon Sundvold (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

Alabama is looking to start 3-0 in the SEC for the third time under Nate Oats
Alabama has scored 1,359 points this season (90.6 ppg), the most any UA team has scored in the first 15 games of the season, surpassing the 2000-01 team (1,248 points)
The Crimson Tide owns the No. 1-ranked offense, according to KenPom
The Tide is currently ranked No. 5 in the NET, the highest-ranked team in the SEC
Mark Sears is one of 25 candidates named to the 2024 John R. Wooden Award Midseason Top-25 Watch List
Sears is the only in Division I player in the country that has at least 300 points, 40 three-pointers, 55 assists and 65 rebounds this season
Sears ranks No. 1 in the SEC in scoring (20.2 ppg), No. 4 in field goal percentage (54.8), and No. 10 in assists (3.7 apg)
Alabama is one of two schools in the SEC (Kentucky) that has two players rank in the top 10 in assists per game in Aaron Estrada (No. 6, 4.1 apg) and Sears
Alabama is one of six schools in the country that has two players on its current roster that has scored at least 1,500 points throughout their career in Estrada (1,676 points) and Mark Sears (1,657 points)
Alabama's trio of Estrada, Grant Nelson and Sears have each scored over 1,000 points throughout their college career, which is tied for the third most in the country (St. John's & TCU with four each)
Alabama head coach Nate Oats became the fastest coach in program history to reach 100 career wins at Alabama with UA's win over Liberty, surpassing Wimp Sanderson (150 games)
Alabama has posted the No. 1-ranked non-conference schedule in the nation, as its opponents have compiled a .719 winning percentage, posting a combined 115-45 record

About Mississippi State

Mississippi State's win over No. 5 Tennessee on Jan. 10 was the Bulldogs' first win over an AP Top-25 opponent since 2002 (Defeated No. 5 Oklahoma)
Under head coach Chris Jans, Mississippi State is 18-5 at Humphrey Coliseum
The Bulldogs are allowing 63.7 points per game, which ranks No. 24 in the country and No. 1 in the SEC
During the Jans' era, only eight teams have reached the 70-point mark against Mississippi State, which Alabama has done twice
In the two games Mississippi State has been outrebounded, the Bulldogs have lost (at Georgia Tech and at South Carolina)
The Bulldogs rank first in the SEC in three-point percentage defense (27.0), scoring defense (63.7 ppg) and second in field goal percentage defense (38.8)
State is 9-1 this season and 27-4 over the last two seasons under Coach Jans when leading at the half
Mississippi State is one of two SEC schools (Tennessee) to secure at least four NCAA NET Quad 1/Quad 2 non-conference victories.
Mississippi State is joined by Memphis as the only schools in the country to have four non-conference wins over Power 5 opponents on road/neutral floors this season

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