The Oklahoma Sooners will make their SEC basketball debut with a bang on Saturday evening when they visit the Alabama Crimson Tide.
It is a showdown between the No. 12 team in the nation (Oklahoma) and the fifth-ranked squad (Alabama). The Sooners are undefeated with a pair of top-25 wins to their credit over Arizona and Michigan, while the Crimson Tide are 11-2 with a trio of top-25 victories and losses only to Purdue and Oregon. Needless to say, this should be a fun one.
Read below to see our experts' predictions for this intriguing matchup, which tips off at 6:00 pm ET on SEC Network.
Alabama made a run to the Final Four last year, ousting North Carolina along the way before falling to two-time defending National Champion UConn.
The Crimson Tide are showing no signs of slowing down in 2024-25, having won 11 of their first 13 games and earning wins over North Carolina, Illinois, Houston, Rutgers and Creighton. Combined with two setbacks at the hands of Purdue and Oregon, non-conference schedules don't get much more difficult than that.
As such, Alabama is battle-tested and, without question, ready for SEC competition to begin.
Head coach Nate Oats' squad is once again led by guard Mark Sears and forward Grant Nelson. In an era of the transfer portal and a one-and-done trend, it's not often that any program keeps its best players around for long.
Experience and chemistry are two things Alabama has going for it that many other teams can't enjoy. Sears is the leading scorer at 18.0 points per game, along with 4.0 assists, 3.1 rebounds, and 1.2 steals.
Nelson comes in at 13.2 ppg, 8.6 rpg and 1.2 blocks. Three other players are also scoring in double-figures for the Crimson Tide (Labaron Philon, Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Aden Holloway).
Oklahoma is no slouch, they are 13-0, after all, but it has not faced any opponent ranked better than No. 24.
Oklahoma also has not played a true road game. Going into a hostile environment and running into the fifth-ranked team in the land will not be an easy task for head coach Porter Moser's team.
The Sooners feature just three players who are scoring in double-figures, so any kind of poor shooting performance from Jeremiah Fears (18.1 ppg), Jalon Moore (17.7 ppg), or Duke Miles (12.5 ppg) could be costly.
Let's roll with the Crimson Tide to win and cover in front of the home crowd.
The over also looks like a strong play for this game and it also correlates nicely with the Tide -12.5, as they will probably have to score a bunch of points in order to cover a relatively sizeable spread.
Scoring is exactly what Alabama has been doing all season long. It leads the entire nation in points per game (89.9) even though it is attempting the third-most three-pointers (32.8 per contest) and making only 31.6 per cent of those attempts.
Oklahoma is averaging 83.1 ppg while shooting an impressive 48.6 percent from the floor and 36.7 percent from downtown. Fears delivered 19 points in the Sooners' most recent outing and was named SEC Freshman of the Week on December 23.
He stepped up in a major way in his team's two biggest non-conference games of the season, producing 26 points against Arizona and torching Michigan for 30.
It's hard to judge Oklahoma's defense given how many cupcake opponents it faced during the non-conference slate, but it surrendered 86 points to the Wolverines and 77 to the Wildcats. Meanwhile, Alabama is watching opponents score 77.2 ppg.
This promises to be an entertaining showdown between two very good SEC teams who like to run up and down the court. Expect a lot of points.
Read more betting picks and predictions for the NCAAB on site.
Oklahoma | +625 |
Alabama | -950 |
Spread | Alabama -13.0 |
Total Points | O/U 165.5 |
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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.