As much of a grind as the SEC was this year, no team had a tougher stretch than Alabama to close out the regular season. The Crimson Tide’s final seven games were all against ranked opponents. All but two were top-15 games and four were inside the top five.

It took every second of the game for Alabama to triumph over Auburn. Mark Sears had to beat out Miles Kelly and Denver Jones on the last possession to get a shot up for the win. This took a lot of effort and Coach Oats wants whatever work they put into this game to be ranked properly, via Matt Stahl of AL.com.

Alabama men's basketball's 94-85 home loss to Auburn on Feb. 15 was the beginning of a downward spiral for the Crimson Tide as it has now lost four of the last six games––all of which came against ranked teams.