Two seasons, one program, two incredibly different teams.

Alabama a season ago had arguably the most talented team in college basketball yet it’s the sequel that’s breaking new ground.

Only three contributors and zero assistant coaches from last year’s No. 1 overall seed/Sweet 16 bust carried over to this year’s Final Four team. So on the eve of the Crimson Tide’s historic debut on the sport’s biggest stage, it’s worth studying the differences between that team that should have and the one that did.

This is the study of talent versus team — not necessarily the 1980 Soviet hockey team versus the Americans, but kinda.

A year ago, the SEC champions of the regular season and tournament seemingly had all the pieces to do this. It was a group built around the nation’s No. 4 recruiting class — namely soon-to-be No. 2 draft pick Brandon Miller. It arrived in the tournament with a 29-5 record and a seven-game winning streak.

A year later, losers in four of the previous six games arrived in Spokane fresh off a 14-point beating in the SEC tournament opener with Florida.

No blind taste test in the world would have Option 2 in the Final Four.

Yet, it’s the composition of the team that entered tournament play with a 21-11 record that was built more for longevity. There was more to prove.

And it’s the difference between an older model versus a newer version.

The one-and-done < the transfer portal, essentially.

The 2024 crew leans heavily on five transfers, three of which arrived after last season. Where Mark Sears (a transfer himself from Ohio before the 2022-23 season) is the unquestioned alpha, there’s a more capable supporting cast to fill in when needed.

Grant Nelson, for example, was the indisputable force that bullied Alabama past North Carolina in the Sweet 16 a year after starring for North Dakota State.

Hofstra import Aaron Estrada was a huge part of the early-game salvage efforts two days later when Clemson took a 26-13 lead over the Tide in the Elite Eight. His jumper ended the 12-0 run that had Alabama doubled up and his 3-pointer a few minutes later chipped the deficit down to 5.

Freshman Jarin Stevenson was obviously a big part of that comeback effort by hitting a pair of 3-pointers in the first half when Sears was 2-for-11 from the field (1-for-7 from the perimeter).

Point is, there was someone there to fill in the gap when the star was struggling.

The Sweet 16 loss last year capped a rough NCAA tournament for Brandon Miller and Alabama couldn’t recover. He shot 3-for-19 (including 1-for-10 from deep) in the 71-64 loss to San Diego State and nobody was there to pick up the slack. The Tide went 3-for-27 shooting 3s, recording its second-lowest percentage (11.1) of the season at the worst possible moment.

Rylan Griffen is one of the three carryovers from last year and a fellow freshman alongside Miller last year. He said the balance is noticeably better this year.

“Brandon was our best player and this year we have a lot of good players who can help,” Griffen said Thursday in Glendale. “Last year we did too but Brandon was so much … he’s 6-9 too. It’s kinda hard to not run everything through him. This year, we’re more versatile — not versatile but there’s a lot more depth in the scoring.”

Forward Nick Pringle, another of the three returnees and a JUCO transfer, took it a step further in a March 23 interview early in the Tide’s tournament run this year.

“I feel like we have more threats offensively,” Pringle said in the interview from Spokane posted by The Next Round. “There are a lot more players to worry about. It was the Brandon Miller show, low-key, last year. Of course, we had good players around him last year but this year I feel like we have more players who can stretch the floor. That’s really deadly for anybody we face because we play so fast.”

Speaking on Thursday, Pringle disagreed with the idea last year’s team leaned too much on Miller but offered reasons for this group making the run it has.

“I feel like it was really building off what we had last year,” Pringle said. “A lot of the new coaches we had this year, they play a big role in what we do differently this year. We have a lot of brains on this team. It’s just amazing the system we have, the strategy we have defensively — how much better we’ve been defensively this postseason and I think a lot of that can translate into these last two games.”

Note, he said these next two games.

Because these crop of transfers aren’t here for the photo opp.

“We didn’t just come here to be in the Final Four,” Nelson said. “We came here to be national champions.”

Oats said he sees a parallel in his journey from high school math teacher/coach to transfers like Nelson of North Dakota State, Estrada of Hofstra, Latrell Wrightsell of Cal State Fullerton and Sears of Ohio.

“I’m just a high school guy that caught a break that’s still trying to prove that I belong at this level,” Oats said. “I think those guys are mid-major players with a chip on their shoulder. They played well enough that now they get an opportunity to prove that they belong at this level, and they’re still trying to prove it to this day. They’re going to try to prove it Saturday that they belong at this level.”

Griffen is the only contributor back from that 2023 recruiting class that thrust last year’s team into the national elite. Noah Clowney joined Miller in the draft, going 21st overall. McDonald’s All-American Jaden Bradley transferred to Arizona as the portal worked both ways in the aftermath of last season’s disappointing finish.

Jahvon Quinerly went to Memphis.

Nimari Burnett left for Michigan.

Of those three former McDonald’s All-Americans, only Bradley played in the NCAA tournament while Alabama made its run with incoming transfers from the Summit League, the CAA and the Big West.

For Griffen, it’s not a matter of choosing between building around freshmen or transfers.

“You have to have both,” he said, “if you want to be a national champion.”

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