At 18-2 and with a nine-game winning streak, Alabama’s making a strong case for a No. 1 NCAA tournament seed.

There’s high-end talent in future lottery pick Brandon Miller and a bench as deep as this program’s ever seen. It’ll take a step outside of conference play for a 1 p.m. CT Saturday visit to Oklahoma (11-9) in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. After 20 games, a status check is due.

The question goes to Nate Oats: Where’s this Alabama team evolved since opening the season Nov. 7 with a 21-point win over Longwood?

He listed three points and it began on the defensive end of the floor.

This was a Crimson Tide that allowed 100 points to Gonzaga in a 10-point loss back on Dec. 17 in Birmingham. In the nine wins since, no opponent cracked the 70-point mark. Alabama’s adjusted defensive efficiency rating of 88.4 is No. 4 nationally, according to KenPom.com. For context, last year’s underperforming Tide was 92nd with a 98.6 rating.

“I think we took a jump in our defense,” senior forward Noah Gurley said Friday. “We try to attack rebounding before every game so that’s what I’d say has really been our focus these past two months: defense and rebounding. That makes the offense easier.”

Another issue in that 100-90 loss to Gonzaga was turnovers. Alabama had 21 that afternoon at the BJCC — giving away 25.3% of its possessions on a day Miller scored 36 points.

Those issues continued for a few more games as it averaged 17.1 turnovers a game after beating Mississippi State, 78-67 on Dec. 28.

Since then, however, Alabama turned it over just 10.3 times in the seven games that followed. Three of the four games that followed the late December trip to Starkville ended with single-digit turnovers and Alabama won those by an average of 29.3 points.

“With the way we play — we play fast, aggressive, attacking — guys have to learn it,” Oats said. “You’d expect more turnovers early in the year but it seemed like it lasted a little longer than we needed to.”

Alabama’s still No. 249 with turnovers on 19.5% of its possessions playing an up-tempo style. The average possession length of 15.2 seconds is the fourth-lowest in the nation, according to KenPom.

Oats’ third point speaks more to how the team is settling into the season.

“I think we have guys who figured out their roles a little better,” Oats said. “We’ve got some guys that not everybody was going to be the main scoring option and some guys figured out where they can fit in and help the team get better and I think guys are buying into their role a lot better.”

Miller’s 19.5-point average leads all freshmen nationally and ranks 30th overall. Two others have double-figure scoring averages, Mark Sears (14.1 ppg) and Noah Clowney (10.1). The next four are scoring between 8.5 and 6.0 points a game — a group that includes Jahvon Quinerly.

After a quick recovery from a March torn ACL, the former McDonald’s All-American was the team’s leading scorer in Wednesday’s win over Mississippi State. His 14-point night was his third double-figure performance in the last four games, a span in which he turned it over just five times.

The Tide is also getting back to full speed physically with Dom Welch adding big minutes off the bench beginning in late December.

More recently, Nimari Burnett returned from his early-December wrist fracture last Saturday at Missouri as Oats said his shooting looked strong in Friday morning’s practice. His defensive presence was huge early in the season and figures to be key in a postseason run.

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