Has Alabama Basketball Turned it Around?

The day was January 31, 2007, and Alabama was visiting Baton Rouge to take on the LSU Tigers. Traditionally, the Crimson Tide are not a good road team, but they prevailed this day against the Bayou Bengals, 73-70.

Since that day, tradition has held true, as the Crimson Tide have lost 19-straight SEC road games, by far the longest streak in the conference.

But after the first two-game conference winning streak of the season, hope is starting to arise around this Crimson Tide basketball team as they travel to Oxford, Mississippi today to take on the Ole Miss Rebels (15-12, 6-7 SEC) and attempt to break the streak.

Alabama (15-12, 5-8) is on its longest regular season conference win streak since 2007, a streak which started with that LSU game in Baton Rouge and lasted a total of three games.

Even with the most confidence Phillip Pearson has seen in this team all season, Tad Smith Coliseum has been a tough place to play for Alabama, as the teams have often split the season series by holding serve at home. The Crimson Tide defeated the Rebels in Tuscaloosa, 76-73, earlier this season.

For Alabama to win this game, they must continue their play of the past two games. The Tide are averaging 87.5 points per game, led by senior Alonzo Gee and sophomore Senario Hillman.

Gee, the reigning SEC Player of the Week, is averaging 25.5 points per game over the streak, which include two of his best performances of the season. Against Mississippi State, he had a game-high and personal season-high 28 points. When Arkansas came to town, he was perfect from behind the arc, hitting all five of his three-point shots on his way to a 17-point first half.

As for Hillman, he has seemingly found the touch that made him lethal during early conference season. Over the past three games, Senario has averaged 16.3 points per game, and has definitely made a difference during the streak as well. Against the Bulldogs, Hillman had 19 of his 21 points come after halftime. Wednesday against Arkansas, he only had 13 points, but also had a career-high seven assists in the game.

Even with all this working for them, the Crimson Tide are still on the road, and breaking that 19-game streak is their biggest obstacle today when they enter the "Tad Pad" at three this afternoon.

If the Crimson Tide can pull off the victory, it should solidify the answer to the question posed earlier.