Nate Oats appears to have landed another early-season non-conference test for Alabama basketball, and it comes with a trip to The Big Apple.
According to CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein, Alabama and St. John’s are finalizing a home-and-home series against each other. The series would start this upcoming 2025-26 college basketball season on Nov. 8 at Madison Square Garden, with the return game taking place in Birmingham during the 2026-27 season.
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Alabama’s NIL collective, Yea Alabama, confirmed Rothstein’s reporting on its X account (formerly Twitter) that the Crimson Tide and Red Storm were working on scheduling a game at The World’s Most Famous Arena.
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Scheduling a team like St. John’s, which was ranked as high as No. 5 in the country last season and earned a No. 2 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament last season, is not something new for Oats nor is the decision of scheduling the game right out of the gate, as these caliber-level games serve as early tests for SEC play and March Madness.
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“Alabama men’s basketball is working towards scheduling a game with St. John’s in Madison Square Garden in November,” Yea Alabama wrote on X.
In recent years, Oats has scheduled marquee non-conference games against Houston, Gonzaga, Creighton, Illinois, Memphis and Arizona, among others. Last year, Oats and Alabama faced Houston, Rutgers and Oregon in The Players Era Festival, an NIL-driven multi-team event in Las Vegas that they will compete in again this year.
November’s expected game between Alabama and St. John’s will be the first head-to-head meeting between Oats and St. John’s Hall of Fame coach Rick Pitino since the 2021 ESPN Events Invitational in Orlando, Florida, when Pitino was then at Iona. The two also coached against each other in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament.
Both the Crimson Tide and Red Storm have utilized the transfer portal this season to reshape their rosters from last season. St. John’s has landed North Carolina guard Ian Jackson, Cincinnati forward Dillon Mitchell, Providence forward Bryce Hopkins, Arizona State guard Joson Sanon and Stanford guard Oziyah Sellers, giving Pitino what many college basketball analysts believe will be one of the top rosters, if not the top roster in the country this season.
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As noted by the Tuscaloosa News, Oats has retooled last year’s Elite Eight team with four players from the transfer portal. The Crimson Tide most recently landed Tarleton State 6-foot-8 forward Keitenn Bristow in the portal on April 30.
Alabama finished 28-9 overall and 13-5 in SEC play last season.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama, St. John’s basketball finalizing non-conference series, report
