“Veterans win in college basketball.”

Two-and-a-half years ago, those were Nate Oats’ words as the Alabama coach assessed his team’s chances ahead of the 2020-21 season. And he was right: seniors Herb Jones and John Petty were two key pieces of a group that won the SEC regular-season title and SEC tournament before eventually falling in the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.

But when you have freshmen that act and play like veterans, can you still win in college basketball? So far for Alabama this season, the answer has been yes.

Oats’ fourth team is assembled differently than his breakthrough second team but, led by three freshmen in the starting lineup, is marching through its schedule in a way no Alabama team has done in two decades.

Its next test comes Wednesday evening in Fayetteville, when Arkansas hosts Alabama in the Tide’ third true road game against an Associated Press top-25 opponent this season. The Tide rose to No. 4 in Monday’s AP poll, while Arkansas ranked No. 15.

The 6 p.m. CT tip in Bud Walton Arena is a chance for Alabama to improve upon its 3-0 road record, one of the several areas where the current team has gotten better since last season, when seven of its 12 regular-season losses came on the road.

“One, we’re a better team overall — that helps,” Oats said Monday. “Two, we’ve got a mature group that understands what type of character it takes to win some tough games.”

After a November win at South Alabama, the Tide’s pair of top-25 road wins came in December against No. 1-ranked Houston and No. 21-ranked Mississippi State, which marked only the second and third times Alabama has beaten a ranked opponent on the road since Oats became coach in 2019. Oats’ teams were previously 1-8, with the lone road win over a ranked team coming in January 2021 over Tennessee — sparking that season’s memorable run.

“I think winning that game at Houston kind of proved that we could play with anybody on the road,” Oats said. “In order to win those road games like that, you’ve got to be tough. I think we were a little bit tougher. We’re a much better defensive team. You go on the road sometimes and you get some offensive droughts, and your defense has to carry you, and I think our defense is able to carry us a lot more this year.”

Alabama played a long stretch of its win at Houston, which is again ranked No. 1 this week, with four freshmen on the floor. Three have been in the starting lineup lately with sophomore Charles Bediako manning a fourth starting spot of one of the nation’s best teams.

Freshmen forwards Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney have started every game they’ve played this season, and guard Jaden Bradley has started the past six after Nimari Burnett’s wrist injury. The trio is among the team’s top four scorers, with Miller (19.1 points per game) leading the SEC in scoring this season.

Miller is the ESPN’s projected No. 7 pick in this summer’s NBA draft, and Clowney is No. 35. Miller has been named the SEC’s freshman of the week four times in nine weeks this season, while Clowney has earned it twice.

As one of the top recruits in his class, Miller was expected to play a significant role for Alabama this season. But the emergence of Bradley and Clowney has shifted two Tide veterans, senior guard Jahvon Quinerly and sixth-year forward Noah Gurley, to background roles on a team that is increasingly led by its younger talent.

“Coach Oats told us — he said this quote last year — he said, ‘When the team wins, the tide rises,’” Gurley said Monday. “But that’s all we care about this year. Me and [Quinerly] have had multiple discussions that we just wanna win, be historic here. Jelly said he wants another ring. I wanna get me one, and our young bulls want the same thing.”

Alabama’s blowout home wins over unranked Ole Miss and unranked Kentucky last week improved the Tide’s record to 13-2, the program’s best start since 2006-07. But the last time Alabama combined a strong overall record with a fast start to SEC play was 2001-02, when it later captured the SEC’s regular-season crown.

“If you’re gonna try to win a conference championship, these are big games you’ve got to come ready to play in,” Oats said of Wednesday’s trip to Arkansas.

Alabama most recently played in Bud Walton Arena on Feb. 24, 2021, when it had a chance to clinch an SEC title but instead lost 81-66 while committing 32 fouls. The discrepancy of 43 free throws attempted by the Razorbacks to the Tide’s eight was the largest between two SEC teams since at least 2010, according to College Basketball Reference.

“We’re gonna have to play through some stuff,” Oats said. “We need to be really up for a tough road game. This is as good of a road environment just about as you’re going to see in the SEC.”

Arkansas was picked to finish No. 2 in the SEC this season but lost forward Trevon Brazile to a season-ending knee injury and will remain without the nation’s top-ranked freshman recruit, guard Nick Smith, because of a knee injury. The Hogs enter 12-3 but 1-2 in the SEC after losing Saturday at Auburn.

“But they’ve still got plenty of talent in there to compete with everybody,” Oats said.

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