On the court, the Alabama men’s basketball team announced its arrival to the postseason with a statement of power.

Off the court on Friday, just as the Crimson Tide’s first game of the SEC basketball tournament was beginning, it was made public that basketball player Darius Miles and friend Michael Davis had been indicted by a Tuscaloosa grand jury on capital murder charges for the shooting death of Jamea Harris.

It was strange timing on an unusual day to begin a curious month. So begins a different kind of March Madness for Alabama basketball, one that represents tragic sadness for some and a chase for collegiate glory for others. There is no way to ignore the weirdness of it, the stark contrasts of celebrated games amid the backdrop of a capital murder trial that could involve current players Brandon Miller and Jaden Bradley as witnesses in a case involving former teammate Miles and team friend Davis.

Alabama defeated Mississippi State 72-49 on Friday and plays Missouri at noon Saturday in the semifinals of the SEC tournament. The championship game is at noon on Sunday and then it’s on to Selection Sunday and next week’s NCAA Tournament. Alabama is expected to play its opening two rounds at Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.

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By so many layers, Alabama’s journey through March will be like nothing the University of Alabama has ever experienced.

Start with Day One.

A Tuscaloosa grand jury handed down indictments for Miles and Davis on Wednesday, and the Tuscaloosa district attorney’s office offered the news on Friday just as Alabama played its first game of the SEC tournament.

The bizarreness of Alabama’s time on stage inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday was a mix of awesome talent during the game and a surreal news conference afterwards. Some reporters asked about the birthday of a player on the team, Charles Bediako. Others asked questions that required Alabama coach Nate Oats to offer evasive answers.

It was awkward to the extreme. Bediako, Alabama’s Canadian center, is 21 years old, by the way.

It is brushing at the edges of absurd already, but this could just be the start of a long month for Alabama that stretches all the way into April’s Final Four. The team, with an overall record of 27-5, is that good, but one of the major reasons for Alabama’s greatness is Miller, the star player who transported the gun that was used in the shooting death of Harris on the morning of Jan.15.

Teammate Jaden Bradley was also present at the shooting. Bradley and Miller were not charged with crimes following the death of Harris, but could be used as witnesses against their former teammate and his friend.

Police allege that Davis shot Harris with Miles’ gun, and new details of that night have emerged recently. ESPN reported that video footage of the shooting shows Davis, the friend of Miles, firing into the Jeep that was occupied by Harris. But as Davis fled the scene, he shot rounds that struck the windshield of Miller’s Dodge Charger.

That’s new information, and sheds light on just how close Miller was to the shooting that took Harris’ life. Miller is lucky to be alive after allegedly bringing the gun to the shooting minutes earlier.

How could Miles so casually have a loaded gun sitting in the backseat of his friend’s car? It speaks to the potential of a gun culture on Alabama’s basketball team that led to the events of that fateful night. Is it so normal for players on Alabama’s team to be around firearms that Miles would think nothing of leaving his weapon in Miller’s car?

I asked team member Jahvon Quinerly after Friday’s game if he owned a gun, and he said no. When asked if Alabama had a team policy on weapons, Alabama coach Nate Oats didn’t answer definitively whether or not guns were banned outright on his team. Oats offered only that “our players are required to follow the university policy, which essentially bans them on campus. We do have a policy.”

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes answered more directly when I asked him about Tennessee’s team policy on guns.

“The university has a code of conduct policy, no weapons allowed on campus, but as a team that is our rule, too,” Barnes said. “No one on the team. That’s two things that we have. One of them is that you can never, ever do anything domestically against a female, and you can never carry a firearm. But the university also has that policy in place.”

On what he tells his team about guns, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said that “as a basketball coach, we talk about lots of things for them as student-athletes, and that’s our biggest job. Some of it is basketball, but some of it is just life in general. So, we have conversations about everything.”

Why did Miller and Bradley continue playing with the team after the shooting? Even that decision was made confusing by Oats after the victory against Mississippi State. Oats was asked directly if there was any discussion at Alabama of disclosing that Miller and Bradley were at the scene before it came out in a bond hearing.

“It has been a difficult situation,” Oats said. “We’re dealing with a criminal matter. So, taking the facts from law enforcement as they do their investigation. So, as we got the facts from them, this was a decision based on all the facts we had with obviously my boss Greg Byrne, his boss Dr. [Stuart] Bell and the Board of Trustees and everybody … based on the information we had, Brandon didn’t break any school policy or team policy, so I was comfortable with the decision that was made.”

It is anything but comfortable now.

Arguably the best team in the country is under the national microscope, but not for its defensive greatness or superior depth. Instead, it’s because a former teammate is behind bars for his role in a shooting that killed a young mother and involved two other players who remain on the team.

Where the wins come easy, the tough questions grow.

Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.