Alabama at halftime during Saturday’s game honored the 2001-02 team on the 20-year anniversary of its SEC regular-season championship.

That team went 17-0 in Coleman Coliseum, and had an overall record of 27-8 (12-4 SEC), and the SEC regular-season title was the program’s first in 15 years. That team ended that year ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll.

Erwin Dudley and Mo Williams were named SEC Player of the Year and SEC Freshman of the Year, respectively, while Mark Gottfried was tabbed as SEC Coach of the Year. Rod Grizzard also earned all-league honors that season. Dudley, Gottfried, Grizzard and others were back in Tuscaloosa, and current head coach Nate Oats spent time with them earlier Saturday, Bama Online reported.

“They were at shootaround today, and I talked to (Gottfried) for a while,” coach Nate Oats said after the game. “He had it rolling here where they were going back-to-back-to-back, five or six straight NCAA Tournament appearances. He did a great job. They had a lot of talent. They had some players in here. (Antoine) Pettway’s on my staff. Pettway was on that team, made the layup to beat Florida to win the regular season. They won it that year, the regular season.

“To me, it’s harder to win the regular season than it is to win the tournament. It’s over a 16-game stretch, not a three- or four-day stretch. And they had some players. Rod Grizzard was a player. Erwin Dudley is around a lot now. He went overseas and played. They had some talent.

Oats, in his third year leading the program, has Alabama projected to go the NCAA Tournament, which would mark the school’s first back-to-back berths in the tournament since 2005-06 when Gottfried was coach.

“We’re trying to get it back to where they had it and then progress it a little bit further,” Oats said. “Let’s make a run to the Final Four and let’s put this program on a national stage. They had it on a national stage pretty good, but we’re trying to make it go just a little bit farther. And those guys are all behind us. I get texts from former players all the time. Everybody’s pulling for us to really win and get this thing where everybody would like to see it at.”