This is an opinion column.

It was hard to watch and looked downright miserable to play.

Alabama’s NCAA tournament win over Grand Canyon on Sunday night was something akin to basketball. There were football elements that would’ve made Nick Saban blush. And a few moments would’ve made ancient Greece proud.

That 72-61 win over our nation’s most scenic trench broke the mold not only for how Alabama plays basketball but for the sport as a whole.

The game flowed like Yoko Ono sang.

And that’s exactly what an underdog like Grand Canyon would’ve scripted on a Sunday night in Spokane. Ugly it up. Snatch one from the No. 4 seed that assumed it got a free pass after the Antelopes upset the 5th-seed St. Mary’s on Friday.

But that’s where Alabama earned its stripes.

It’s how this team recovered from a late-season swoon to make a third Sweet 16 trip in the past four years and further solidify the program’s standing in the national landscape.

Down in the mud, the high-scoring, defensively challenged Crimson Tide flipped a switch. Meeting the moment instead of wilting under pressure, Alabama won a different way.

Two days earlier, the Tide tallied its 10th triple-digit output of the season with a 109-96 win over the College of Charleston. By Sunday, the second-lowest scoring total of the season netted an 11-point win.

A few more numbers to chew on:

• Alabama had a season-high nine blocks.
• The 10 Crimson Tide steals tied for the second most this season.
• Grand Canyon’s 61 points were the fourth-fewest allowed by Alabama this season and a full 20 points below the Tide’s average allowance.
• The Antelopes shot just 32.1% (18-for-56). That’s the third-lowest of any Alabama opponent this season.

That’s how you win games when some of the tried-and-true methods suffer.

Consider the fact Alabama went nearly seven minutes between made shots in the first half. Or that only it made fewer 3-pointers only five times this season, but the 8-for-31 success rate wasn’t fatal.

Nor was the fact Grand Canyon shot 37 foul shots to Alabama’s 22. The 37 attempts were the third most by an Alabama opponent — still far behind the 50 at Auburn — and one more than the Tide had in all but one game.

There were certainly some intriguing judgment calls and Nate Oats definitely noticed. He got one first-half technical and forward Nick Pringle got another when destroying a clipboard in frustration after another Alabama foul.

No doubt, there were some bad ones.

Whistles were swallowed in the face of felonies, but good teams overcome the officiating disputes and find a way to win.

That’s where you find the hero you weren’t expecting.

On this night, it was Mo Dioubate — a true freshman from Queens who played like he was born for this rock fight. The 6-7 forward fought for a tough rebound with 5:21 left and his putback gave Alabama its final lead of the game. He scored seven more down the stretch when Alabama’s bench was thinned by foul trouble and Latrell Wrightsell’s first-half head injury.

Dioubate had six points in Friday’s first-round blowout but tallied just seven combined in the five games before that.

Again, good teams have the depth to find someone ready for the big moment just when things are turning south. Because they were. Grand Canyon had the tailwind taking a 58-55 lead with 6:03 to play and a spirited crowd on their side.

So Dioubate and Co. responded.

The Southeastern Conference team outscored the Western Athletic Conference champ 17-3 after falling behind. The plucky Antelopes make another basket from the field after Foster-Grant’s jumper gave them the three-point lead with 6:03 left.

And Alabama scored the final 10 points to make the final look more conventional than any witness could tell you.

Now the Crimson Tide has the pleasure of facing top-seeded North Carolina on Thursday in Los Angeles. The Tar Heels have won 10 of its last 11 after beating Michigan State 85-69 on Saturday and Wagner 90-62 on Thursday.

Those scores look like a casual walk on the Santa Monica Pier compared to the combat Alabama experienced Sunday.

Still, Alabama’s better for surviving that quagmire.

It showed winning doesn’t always require an offensive explosion.

But it’ll take that Sunday grit and the Thursday offense to send the Tar Heel home before Easter.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.