Alabama matches season high in AP basketball poll

Alabama matches season high in AP basketball poll

Alabama rose three more spots in Monday’s Associated Press men’s basketball poll to No. 4, matching its season high in that poll.

The Tide did not receive any first-place votes and remained behind new No. 1 Houston, which it beat earlier this year, as well as No. 2 Kansas and No. 3 Purdue.

The last time Alabama was ranked higher than No. 4 in the AP poll was Dec. 30, 2002, when it was No. 1.

Alabama rose this week after it blew out two unranked SEC opponents in Ole Miss and Kentucky, and Nos. 4-6 in last week’s poll — UConn, Arizona and Texas — all lost.

Alabama will learn its coaches poll ranking later Monday. It was No. 7 in last week’s coaches poll.

Alabama is No. 6 in the NET rankings used by the NCAA tournament committee, with the nation’s eighth-hardest schedule by that metric. Kansas is No. 4 in NET with the hardest schedule.

ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projected Alabama as a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament in his latest outlook posted Saturday morning.

The Tide travels to Fayetteville to meet Arkansas on Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. CT before hosting LSU on Saturday afternoon. The Razorbacks were No. 15 in Monday’s AP poll.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.