Alabama basketball has already started the 2025-26 season with a high degree of difficulty. Right from the jump, UA has won games against St. John’s and Illinois, and fallen to Purdue.
It’s not getting any easier as the Crimson Tide begins the Players Era Festival tournament in Las Vegas on Monday. Alabama will begin the event by facing No. 13 Gonzaga.
According to Alabama head coach Nate Oats, the Tide is looking forward to the challenge.
“It’s one of the best events in the country,” Oats said Sunday. “I mean, it’s got the highest volume of high-level teams of any of these MTEs in the country. We get to play against Gonzaga, shoot, we easily could play against two top 10 teams out here. I expect Gonzaga will be top 10 in the polls when they come out tomorrow.”
Gonzaga comes in at 5-0 on the season, and has played a difficult schedule in its own right. The Bulldogs are entering fresh off a win over Southern Utah, a 122-50 laughter, and also also beat top 25 Creighton earlier in the slate.
Oats praised his upcoming opponent.
“They’re tough, physical, they’ve got a veteran group,” he said of Gonzaga. “They’re older I mean, shoot, coach (Mark) Few’s one of the best coaches in the country. Go look at the last 10-15 years in college basketball. There hasn’t been anybody doing it at a higher level then what they’ve been doing it at.
“So, I think the combination of coaching, veteran experienced players, toughness– they’re good. They’re shutting down, I mean, look at who they played. They played Creighton… They obliterated Creighton in the second half. That game was close and within four or five minutes it was a blowout.”
After facing Gonzaga on Monday, the Crimson Tide will face UNLV on Tuesday. The event’s championship and third-place games will take place on Wednesday, meaning the Tide could face another extremely good team early in the year.
Oats stressed how important Alabama’s depth could be.
“Playing one of the best teams right out of the gate, it takes a lot out of you,” Oats said. “But you gotta win the game. If you’re trying to win the tournament, you can’t rest your guys on Day 1, like you gotta win the game.
“… So if we’re fortunate enough to win the game against Gonzaga, we’re going to have to get into our depth, use it. Maybe we got to use it a little bit more against Gonzaga at appropriate times, but we’re for sure gonna have to use our depth on Tuesday and then Wednesday, your depth’s really gonna come into play.”
Alabama and Gonzaga are scheduled to tip off at 8:30 p.m. CT Monday in Las Vegas. The game will be aired on TNT.
