Alabama, Ohio State to face off in Emerald Coast Classic
In November, the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Ohio State Buckeyes will face off in the Emerald Coast Classic Tournament held at Northwest Florida State College in Niceville, Florida on November 24 and 25. While there are no odds yet to be released for the matchup, Alabama will likely enter the game as a considerable favorite. Make sure to use Tipico Ohio Promo codes for this and future games to increase your chances of winning.
The Crimson Tide and Buckeyes headline an eight-team field alongside the Oregon Ducks. Other teams included in the Emerald Coast Classic are Santa Clara, Mercer, Tennessee State, Southeastern Louisiana, and Western Michigan.
On top of Alabama and Ohio State’s matchup, Oregon will take on Santa Clara, Mercer will face Tennessee State, and Southeastern Louisiana will play Western Michigan.
The Crimson Tide are coming off one of the best seasons in program history, going 31-6 overall and winning an SEC regular season title. The Crimson Tide would make it to the Sweet 16 this past March, defeating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the first round, before dispatching Maryland in the Round of 32. Their season, however, would come to an end in the Sweet 16 where they fell to the San Diego State Aztecs 71-64. The Aztecs would go on to be the national runner-up, making it all the way to the national championship game before losing to UConn.
This upcoming season will be the program’s fifth under head coach Nate Oats. After going 16-15 in his first season, Oats and the Crimson Tide have made the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons, winning 19+ games each season. It is the program’s best stretch of basketball since 2001-2006 when the program made the NCAA Tournament five straight seasons under head coach Mark Gottfried.
Ohio State, on the other hand, had a huge down season under head coach Chris Holtmann. After winning 20+ games in each of his first five seasons with the program, the Buckeyes were just 16-19 this past season including 5-15 in Big Ten play. After starting the season 10-3, the Buckeyes would go on to lose 14 of their next 15 games, only defeating Iowa along the way. They would, however, finish their season on a bit of a higher note. Winning two of their last three regular-season games before winning three games in the Big Ten Tournament before losing to Purdue in the Big Ten Conference Tournament semifinals.
When it comes to their matchup in the Emerald Coast Classic in November, it should be an interesting early season matchup that sets the tone for what to expect out of both programs next season. The Crimson Tide is expected to be one of the top teams in the country next season, at least to open the season, despite losing a couple of key pieces including forward Brandon Miller who averaged 18.8 points, 8.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists last season. They did, however, land transfers Aaron Estrada and Latrell Wrightsell Jr, both were dominant at their previous institutions. Key players such as Mark Sear and Charles Bediako also return for the Crimson Tide next fall.
Ohio State, on the other hand, is expected to improve on their down season. Very rarely do the Buckeyes have poor back-to-back seasons. They began to catch heat at the end of the season as mentioned above and that momentum could carry over into this summer and all the way into next season. Top scorers Brice Sensabaugh and Justice Sueing will be moving onto the NBA which will be tough to replace but the Buckeyes put together a strong 2023 recruiting class and have had success in the transfer portal as well. Will it be enough to return to the NCAA Tournament? That remains to be seen but this Ohio State team should be a competitive one next season.
Matching up against each other, Alabama, on paper is the much better, complete team entering next season. They have been consistently strong under head coach Nate Oates and are shaping up to be a title contender once again in 2023-24, hopefully with less off-court issues as well. Don’t count Ohio State out as well, as mentioned, they rarely have down seasons back-to-back years and the non-conference slate wasn’t their issue last year, it was their play within the conference that ultimately doomed them. An early season win over Alabama could set the tone for a big bounce-back win for Ohio State next November. That being said, as of right now, we would have to go with Alabama winning this matchup but in a close fashion, don’t expect a blowout by any means in this one.
