Setting the Alabama basketball offense’s historical performance in context
As the 2024 season progresses, the Crimson Tide has fielded a historically significant offensive. In comparison to some of the greatest offensive plays in sports history, how does it fare?
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. Fans were promised a fast-paced, high-octane offensive system with plenty of 3-pointers when the Nats transferred from Buffalo to Alabama.
Throughout Oats’ nearly five-year tenure, Alabama has consistently fielded one of the most potent offenses in college basketball, providing Crimson Tide supporters with exactly what they have come to expect.
However, this year’s offensive has been his finest to date.
At 90.3 points per game, Alabama is scoring the most points of any team in all of college basketball. Out of 362 teams, that is the top spot. Additionally, the Crimson Tide is ranked 13th in 3-point percentage and 8th in effective field goal percentage in the country.
Alabama is shooting over 38 percent from beyond the arc as a team, and it features four separate rotation players shooting above 40 percent from three individually.
While raw numbers like this are impressive, the real eye-popping numbers come from the analytics.
Because there are so many teams playing collegiate basketball, there are many different analytics services available that track teams’ efficiency on both ends of the court, making it easier to rank the vast number of teams than simply considering their win/loss record.
Kenneth Pomeroy founded KenPom.com in 1999, and it is currently one of the most well-liked analytics programs for collegiate basketball.
KenPom provides a formula to calculate the adjusted defensive and offensive efficiency measures for a team. Essentially, the metrics are primarily based on the number of points a team scores per 100 possessions, with some additional variables factored in to adjust for opponent strength.
Currently ranked as the nation’s top offense, Alabama’s adjusted offensive efficiency rating during the Crimson Tide’s bye week was 126.2.
Additionally, that figure is the fifth-highest offensive efficiency in KenPom history. Alabama’s 2024 offense was the most efficient in collegiate basketball during the last 25 years, according to this analysis.
Looking further into the offensive efficiency statistics and history on KenPom, it may be even more astounding to see that, over the course of KenPom’s existence, only 12 teams have achieved an offensive efficiency rating of at least 125.0. That’s 12 teams total, out of 25 years of tracking efficiencies for over 300 teams per year.
12 teams, or 0.16%, out of about 7,500 teams.
Here’s a list of the 12 teams in chronological order, as well as what seed they ended up having in the NCAA Tournament that season:
