For two college basketball powers on nearly opposite corners of the country, Alabama and Gonzaga have some history.
The next chapter comes Monday when the No. 11 Crimson Tide (3-1) and the No. 13 Bulldogs (5-0) are scheduled to meet at the Players Era men’s tournament in Las Vegas.
Alabama and Gonzaga first met in 2021 in Seattle, when the Tide rolled to a 91-82 victory against the Zags.
The next season, Gonzaga upset Alabama 100-90 in Birmingham, Ala.
“All of Nate (Oats’) teams have been terrific, and we’ve had some good battles with them,” Gonzaga coach Mark Few said. “But this one’s going to be, I think, a real, real big challenge. They looked every bit like a top-five, top-three team the other night when I was watching them.”
Alabama has already faced three top-10 teams. The Crimson Tide defeated then-No. 5 St. John’s 103-96 in New York, lost to then-No. 2 Purdue 87-80 at home and beat No. 8 Illinois 90-86 in Chicago.
Labaron Philon Jr. led the Crimson Tide with 24 points and five assists Wednesday against the Fighting Illini.
Philon returned to school after flirting with the NBA draft. The 6-foot-4 sophomore guard, a first-team all-Southeastern Conference preseason selection, leads the Tide with 20.5 points on 53.2% shooting from the field and 5.8 assists per game.
“He’s an Alabama kid that wants to take Alabama further than it’s ever gone before,” Oats said of Philon, who helped the Tide reach the Elite Eight of the NCAA Tournament last season. “He came back to compete for a national championship, and I think we got a team that can do it.”
Host Gonzaga rolled to a 90-63 victory against then-No. 23 Creighton on Nov. 11, the lone ranked team it has faced thus far.
The Bulldogs have been idle since a 122-50 home victory over Southern Utah last Monday, their largest margin of victory ever over a Division I opponent.
“It’s just always a work in progress,” Few said. “I just told them, we finally got a little time. These games (in Las Vegas) are just boom, boom, boom, boom. So you’re just always moving on to the next opponent or resting. Now we got a little bit of time to fine-tune some stuff and hopefully get everybody on the same page.”
Graham Ike leads the Bulldogs with 17 points on 58.5% shooting and 9.2 rebounds per game.
One intriguing matchup will feature Alabama’s Taylor Bol Bowen and Gonzaga’s Jalen Warley, who were previously teammates at Florida State.
Bowen is averaging a career-best 12.5 points for Alabama with 4.3 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 24 minutes per game. Gonzaga’s Warley is scoring 8.2 points with 5.8 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 21.2 minutes off the bench.
“It’s just really exciting to see we’re at two prominent programs,” Warley told Gonzaga Bulldogs on SI. “We really have a shot to get to that Final Four and hopefully cut down some nets.”
