Well, that’s what a 1-seed looks like.

Somewhere between Alabama holding Mississippi State without a point in 20 minutes of real time and Brandon Miller making 3-pointers look like layups, that reality should’ve sunk in.

Alabama’s top gear? Oh, it’s scary, alright.

It was easy to forget that amidst an 8-game stretch to close the regular season that had 7 games go down to the wire. Call me crazy, but the Tide may or may not have just been a team that was more anxious than flawed. When you’re as good as long as Alabama has been, droughts are inevitable. When you’re as dominant as Alabama is, 1-seeds are also inevitable.

That’s right. For the first time since 2015, we should see an SEC team earn a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament. Alabama might’ve had that locked down even with a loss to a gritty MSU squad. But the Tide left zero doubt about that on Friday afternoon with a quarterfinal blowout of Chris Jans’ squad, who was clearly overmatched on short rest.

In the grand scheme of things, a quarterfinal win in the SEC Tournament likely won’t be the high point of Alabama’s season. But there is at least some significance in avoiding a pre-semifinal exit.

In the 21st century, nobody went on to win a national title after failing to reach their conference tournament semifinal. The only time a pre-semifinal exit squad even reached the title game in the 21st century was 2013 Michigan.

(I chose the 21st century because the Big Ten didn’t play a conference tournament until 1998 and the Pac-12 experimented with a conference tournament in 1987-90, but then didn’t start it up again until 2002.)

Does that mean Alabama is destined to cut down the nets? Certainly not. But it does at least squash the notion that the Tide peaked too early.

Go ask 2022 Auburn about that. The Tigers were stunned in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals by Texas A&M. A team that was No. 1 in America in mid-February went 5-4 heading into March Madness and couldn’t reach the second weekend as a 2-seed.

The goal for this year’s Alabama squad, which also has a true freshman who’ll likely be top-5 pick, is avoiding that. That’s easier said than done.

It’s been easier said than done for a handful of recent SEC squads that had hopes of entering the NCAA Tournament as a 1-seed, but just couldn’t quite make that happen. Tennessee had a couple of those squads in the past 4 years, as has Kentucky. But for whatever reason, nobody has been able to make that happen since 2015 Kentucky entered the field as a 34-0 squad and as a no-doubter choice for the No. 1 overall seed.

That’s in play for Alabama. It might be the Tide and Kansas battling for that distinction. No disrespect to Houston, but Alabama winning in their building eliminates Kelvin Sampson’s squad from that discussion if the Tide are involved. Say what you will about that. I’d argue just getting to a 1-seed is more significant.

Winning a single game in Nashville — and doing so to get Quad 1 win No. 10 by holding a likely tournament-bound MSU squad to its worst offensive output of the season — should’ve quieted any lingering questions about that.

Nate Oats’ squad is balanced, deep and lethal. Alabama, Houston, UConn and Texas are the only teams in the country that rank in the top 20 in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency. Alabama hasn’t lost a game in which it led at halftime, and it has yet to lose multiple games in a row. Shoot, Alabama hasn’t lost multiple games in the same month. They’ll need an SEC Tournament title and a Final Four run — that would be the first in program history — to continue that.

Friday’s dominance might’ve all but guaranteed a 1-seed, but beyond that, obviously, is anyone’s guess. Alabama should take solace in the fact that amidst a sluggish close to the regular season, it came out with its hair on fire in Nashville. The nation’s No. 2 team in possessions per 40 minutes didn’t necessarily need the transition buckets to run away from MSU. Alabama did its damage in the half-court on both sides of the ball.

Consider that just another reminder of the different ways in which the Tide can win games. This seems like a good time of year to have that in your back pocket.

“The 1-seed played like a 1-seed,” Karl Ravech said to close Friday’s broadcast.

A 1-seed should await Alabama, even if the weekend in Nashville doesn’t conclude with crimson confetti. Entering March — especially given the SEC’s recent history — that’s about as much as the Tide could’ve hoped for.