SEC Hoops Preview: Alabama Travels to Creighton for NIT Round One

The University of Alabama will travel to Omaha to take on the Creighton Tuesday at the Century Link Center to kick off the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). Alabama is ranked at the No.5 seed in the NIT tournament and Creighton at the No. 4 seed. Both the Crimson Tide and the Bluejays are 18-14 overall for the season.

At the start of the season, both the Bluejays and the Crimson Tide had more to worry about than a postseason tournament. The Bluejays were coming off their first losing season in an almost decade and as for the Crimson Tide, a new coach and a young team would propose many challenges for the team to overcome.

In his first year with the Crimson Tide as head coach, Alabama’s Avery Johnson, is pleased with his team’s success. Coach Johnson said that at the start of the season they would have never expected to be playing in a postseason tournament. Coach Johnson also says that he is excited to have the opportunity to play in a meaningful postseason tournament.

Coach Johnson says that this tournament will give two of his seniors the opportunity to better show off their athletic talents to scouts. Whom without this tournament might have never noticed the two players. Johnson believes that both Senior Retin Obasohan and graduate student Author Edwards both have the have the athletic ability to play after college.

Both Alabama and Creighton are coming off of hard losses to teams in their conference. Alabama recently lost to Kentucky and Creighton lost to Seaton Hall.

Though his team is coming off of a loss coach Johnson said that his team struggled with Kentucky all year and is hopeful that his team will play like he knows they are capable of.

This will be the first time this season that the Crimson Tide and Bluejays will match up.

The game is set to tip-off at 9 p.m. and will be broadcasted on ESPN.