Alabama earned the No. 1 overall seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament, but Tide coach Nate Oats said Monday his team has a difficult path relative to its standing atop the seed list.

“These two games we’ve got coming up in Birmingham this weekend are not gonna be the easiest of games,” he said during his weekly “Hey Coach” radio show. “We feel like we got a pretty tough draw as a No. 1 overall seed. But I think our guys will be ready.”

In earning the top seed, Alabama was afforded the privilege of playing in the South region and having its potential Sweet 16 and Elite Eight games closest to home, in Louisville, among the four regional sites. The Tide also play its first and second round games in Birmingham, which happened to be one of the eight sub-regional sites of the tournament this year.

But in terms of how the NCAA men’s basketball committee ranked the tournament’s teams 1 through 68, the South region has the second-toughest draw of top four seeds. As outlined on CBS’ selection show Sunday night, the South’s top four seeds — No. 1 Alabama (No. 1 overall seed), No. 2 Arizona (No. 7 overall seed), No. 3 Baylor (No. 9 overall seed) and No. 4 Virginia (No. 16 overall seed) — have the second-highest average overall seed at 8.25, behind only the West at 7.75, led by Kansas.

Alabama on Thursday will face the winner of Tuesday’s play-in game in Dayton, Ohio between potential No. 16 seeds Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Southeast Missouri State. Thursday’s winner will face the winner of No. 8 seed Maryland and No. 9 seed West Virginia on Saturday.

“This will be the last two games we play in the state of Alabama with this team,” Oats said. “This has been a historic team. We need to make a historic run now in the NCAA tournament.”

Like he did Sunday evening, Oats again Monday called for Alabama fans to pack Legacy Arena on Thursday. There will be two ticketed sessions of two games each, with Alabama part of the earlier session with its 1:45 p.m. CT game, followed by a second session including Auburn’s game against Iowa. There could be crossover, though, between Alabama and Auburn fans in the arena Thursday, and if both teams advance to Saturday, there is only one ticketed session that would include games for both rivals who are playing in different regions of the tournament.

Alabama last played in Legacy Arena in December, when fans in the arena were overwhelmingly supportive of the Tide in a neutral-site game against Gonzaga. But Alabama’s defense struggled and the Tide lost, 100-90.

“Let’s try to get it as close to a home game as we can, similar to like it was against Gonzaga,” Oats said. “We’re going to play a lot better on the defensive end than we did against Gonzaga. I promise you we’ll be ready to go.”

Oats applauded Alabama fans who traveled to last weekend’s SEC tournament in Nashville, where he felt the crowd was 75 to 80 percent in support of his team during Sunday’s championship game against Texas A&M.

“You saw well we played in championship game in Nashville,” Oats said. “Eight days before that we were at A&M without our fans and didn’t fare nearly as well. Let’s get our fans in [Birmingham]. It’s a big deal. Our players’ energy is a lot better when they’re in the crowd.”

Oats said he realized the Alabama tilt to Sunday’s crowd when Tide fans began chanting before the game.

“It was awesome. It was like a home game,” he said. “I was waiting for the A&M chant, and if they tried, there wasn’t enough people to get it going loud enough for me to hear it.

“The Roll Tide fans showed up. We need them to show up even stronger in Birmingham. It might have been 75% in Nashville — we need that be about 95%, maybe 99%, up in Birmingham. We need everybody to find their way into that arena and get themselves a ticket and support us.”

Alabama’s staff is splitting preparation early this week between its two potential opponents Thursday, as well as preparing for any anomalies its possible opponents Saturday might present, including West Virginia’s press defense.

Tuesday’s play-in game between the Tide’s possible No. 16 seed opponents begins at 5:40 p.m. CT and will air on TruTV.

“They’re both good programs,” Oats said of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Southeast Missouri State. “You don’t make the NCAA tournament without being good. Corpus Christi won their league. SEMO made a run in the tournament, made it. They both played fast, which is good and bad. It’s good because obviously we’ve got more talent than them — we’re the No. 1 overall seed and they’re the No. 16 seed — when you’ve got more talent, you like to have more possessions.

“So it’s good that hopefully — if either one of them tries to slow it down, that’s not really how they play. So we’d like to [play] fast ourselves, plus we’re the more talented team, so that’s good. The one bad thing is, they could get going up and down and maybe get loose a little bit, because they can shoot some threes.”

Alabama, which won its second SEC tournament championship in three seasons, has the second-shortest betting odds to reach the Final Four behind Midwest No. 1 seed Houston.

“We’ve got a great group of kids,” Oats said. “I think the country is starting to see what a great group of kids we have. We’ve been playing some pretty high-level basketball.”

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