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College basketball rankings: Alabama headlines final Top 25 And 1 ahead of 2023 NCAA Tournament – CBS Sports
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Alabama is No. 1 in Monday morning’s final update of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings for this season. Nate Oats’ program vaulted to the top spot after defeating Texas A&M in Sunday’s championship game of the SEC Tournament while Houston lost to Memphis in Sunday’s championship game of the American Athletic Conference Tournament.
The Crimson Tide are also the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament. So, for better or worse, Brandon Miller is now the face of college basketball’s postseason as Alabama tries to win its first national championship under undeniably awkward circumstances.
Why awkward?
Because Miller, Alabama’s best player and a projected top-five pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, allegedly drove a gun to a scene where it was, very shortly after his arrival, used to kill a 23-year-old mother less than two months ago. Regardless, Miller has never been publicly disciplined by the program or school, where driving around Tuscaloosa after 1 a.m. with a loaded gun in your car and delivering it to a teammate who just texted you that he needed it because he was in some sort of altercation is apparently no violation of any team policy or rule. That’s what Alabama officials have said, at least.
So the Crimson Tide’s season has marched on with no meaningful interruption, even though a dude who played 13 minutes against Memphis in December (Darius Miles) is now facing a capital murder charge, and even though his most high-profile teammate (Miller) is literally the only reason the gun that killed the mother of a 5-year-old boy was there that night to be used to kill the mother of a 5-year-old boy.
It really is incredible.
That said, there’s no getting around the fact that in spite of these rather big distractions and issues, Alabama’s basketball team is … awesome. The Crimson Tide were the outright SEC champions and SEC Tournament champions. They deserve to be No. 1 in the Top 25 And 1 and the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament. Now, it’ll be fascinating to watch them try to advance in the bracket accordingly while every press conference is filled with reporters asking questions about the shooting death of a young woman near campus in January
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