In the four seasons that Nate Oats has coached Alabama, the Tide’s men’s basketball program has risen from the NIT to the being the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA tournament.

But with the ascension has come harder falls, and Alabama’s hopes to reach unprecedented hoops heights have come crashing down in two of the past three seasons.

In 2021, Alabama was a No. 2 seed that missed four free throws in the final two minutes of the Sweet 16 to lose to No. 11 seed UCLA. And in 2023, Alabama earned the program’s first-ever No. 1 seed only to blow a nine-point second-half lead and fall Friday to San Diego State in the Sweet 16.

Oats defended the progress his program has made despite its upset losses from the tournament.

“[There are] a lot of really good programs in the country that have lost,” Oats said. “I mean, we could go down the list of them. That’s what makes the NCAA tournament the NCAA tournament. They’re all good teams.”

By Friday night, all of the 2023 tournament’s No. 1 seeds had been eliminated, with Houston falling in a blowout to Miami after Kansas and Purdue were also bounced on the first weekend, in addition to several other highly-seeded teams.

“We were going to lose to a team seeded lower than us unless we won the national championship this year,” Oats noted. “We were the No. 1 overall seed.”

Alabama had promise during the 2021-22 season, too, after it beat top-five teams in Gonzaga, Baylor. But last season’s team showed troubling signs midseason and lost its final four games, including an upset loss as a No. 6 seed to No. 11 seed Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament.

“Last year we had an injury that nobody expected when [Jahvon Quinerly] blew his knee out,” Oats said. “Not that that’s an excuse. Notre Dame played well.

“Before that [against UCLA in 2021], we went 12 of 25 at the free-throw line. Goes into overtime. Shoot 60% instead of less than 50, probably win that game.”

Alabama shot 3-of-27 from three-point range against San Diego State, with Brandon Miller missing nine of his ten triples, including three in a little more than the final two minutes.

“I know we take a lot of threes, but the system worked for the entire year,” Oats said. “It’s one of those deals where I’m going to go back to the drawing board and see what I can get better at. We’re going to try to recruit really good players.

“A lot of programs would love to be in the NCAA tournament three straight years. A lot of them would have loved to have won the SEC regular season tournament twice in the last three years.

“We’re doing pretty good things at Alabama, and we’re going to continue to get better.”

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