Is Alabama a basketball school? They ask that question now and again, and it’s never clear if the inquiry is entirely serious considering the university employed both Paul Bryant and Nick Saban, but Nate Oats plays it straight. He says it’s not an either-or proposition. Alabama is a championship school, and basketball is just trying to do its part.

Good answer from the coach of the best college basketball team in the country at the moment, no matter what the polls or the metrics spit out.

Is Alabama a basketball school? You could make a case after the Crimson Tide added a quality 85-64 road win Saturday at Missouri, its 17th victory in 19 starts, its eighth straight win, its seventh in seven SEC games, each of them by a double-digit final margin.

With No. 2 Kansas losing twice in the past week, Alabama will move from No. 4 in both polls to No. 3 at least on Monday. Rising all the way to No. 1 seems a matter of when, not if. When it happens, it will be history that stretches all the way to the other SEC program in the state.

Alabama has been No. 1 before, back in December of 2002. So has Auburn, just last year. Which means, if the Tide can jump Houston, which it’s already beaten, and Purdue, Alabama and Auburn will have achieved No. 1 rankings in consecutive seasons after winning the last two SEC regular-season championships.

So is Alabama a basketball school? Good question. Here’s a bigger and better one more applicable to the moment. Is Alabama a basketball state?