In the beginning days of January, Alabama was 8-5 and on the outside looking in on the AP poll. But the Crimson Tide, coach Nate Oats professed, was a top-10 team if you looked at some of their advanced numbers. “But nobody that’s actually judging wins and losses has us in their top 25 even, so we’ve got some work to do,” he said then.

The reason for that was simple. Defense. Alabama lost 3 straight to Purdue, Creighton, and Arizona from Dec. 9-20 and gave up an average of 1.222 points per possession. All 3 were top-10 teams in the polls, but it was clear early in the season that Alabama’s defense wasn’t what it was the year prior.

In the 2022-23 season, Alabama ranked third nationally with an adjusted defensive rating of 88.2, per KenPom. The Tide spent most of the 2023-24 season in the 100s.

“This year, for whatever reason, I haven’t done as good a job getting this group to be as competitive as we need to be,” Oats said in January. “I’ve got to do a better job of making them more competitive, tougher and figuring out how to be winners. We don’t have any guys that are fighting us on what we’re asking to do. We’ve just got to get more competitive and figure out how to win tough games.”

Fast forward to March 28.

Mission accomplished.

Alabama upset 1-seed North Carolina on Thursday night, 89-87, to advance to the Elite Eight for just the second time in program history.

The Tide gave up 54 first-half points, and it looked like Carolina was starting to pull away over the final 5 minutes of the opening half. Cormac Ryan hit a 3, the Harrison Ingram and Armando Bacot scored in quick succession. The hoop opened up, eyes widened, and Carolina closed out the half with a 20-7 run to take an 8-point lead into the locker room.

Alabama opened the second half with a 13-3 run. The defensive intensity was on another level. Alabama held the Tar Heels to 25% shooting and just 33 points in the second half. RJ Davis missed 9 of his 12 shots and all 6 of his 3s. Bacot missed 6 of his 9 shots. Ingram missed 5 of his 6 and all 3 of his triples.

“Our guys showed some character. They’ve been showing some character these last 3 games,” Oats said after the game. “We’ve been questioned all year on defense, probably rightfully so, but our defense showed up particularly in the second half. We had a game plan.”

The plan was to leave Elliot Cadeau and Seth Trimble, focus on Bacot and Davis, and force the non-shooters to make shots. Cadeau hit 2 of his 3 attempts from deep and Trimble hit both of his shot attempts from 3 in the first. Oats and Co. stuck to the script.

Grant Nelson played Bacot straight up more often and Alabama switched along the perimeter. Cadeau and Trimble were left on the bench for most of the second half, and still the Tide caused Carolina problems.

“Their length bothered us,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “They had length and athleticism at every position. And so when they’re switching different types of actions, that made it difficult for us to score. And not doing the job on the boards didn’t allow us to get out in transition. So we were always going up against a set defense. I thought that played a part into it as well.”

Star Alabama guard Mark Sears called Rylan Griffen the X-factor. He scored 19 points and knocked down 5 triples, but the defense he played was maybe even more important.

“We don’t win this game without Rylan locking (RJ Davis) up,” said Sears.

Added Nelson: “I think (Cormac Ryan) got hot for a little bit. Rylan said, ‘I want him.’ He stopped making shots.”

Davis ended the game with 16 points on 20 shots. Ryan hit 4 of his first 5 from deep but had only 1 triple in the second half.

In a 1-point game with less than 90 seconds to play, Alabama was able to sucker Carolina forward Jae’lyn Withers (20% this season) into a late-clock 3 from the top of the break. He missed, Griffen secured the rebound, and Sears found Nelson rolling to the basket 19 seconds later for a go-ahead bucket and a foul.

He made the and-1, giving Bama a 2-point lead with 38 seconds.

On the ensuing Carolina possession, Nelson blocked a shot inside from RJ Davis and Alabama was able to force a shot-clock violation with 8 seconds to play. Carolina sent Nelson to the foul line, where he knocked down both free throws for a 4-point lead and that was that.

It wasn’t a barrage of 3s that buried the top-seeded Tar Heels. It wasn’t a run-and-gun show with Sears sizzling. No, this game was won on the other end.

Carolina scored 1.543 points per possession in the first half. In the second half, Alabama limited the Tar Heels to 0.971.

Few expected the Crimson Tide — around a 4-point dog at most sports betting apps — to knock off the Tar Heels. Early Thursday, 91% of bets and 94% of the handle at DraftKings were on the Tar Heels to cover a 4.5-point spread.

But Alabama believed.

In the second-round win over Grand Canyon, the Tide learned they can win without an overwhelming offensive display. Now, they should know they can hang with anyone and come up with stops when they need them. That makes for a dangerous team.

“You can say a lot about the leadership of guys trying to get us to compete,” Oats said. “Mark Sears has competed as hard as he’s ever competed since he’s been at Alabama these last three games. When the season’s on the line, we’ve been challenging these guys all year. They’ve stepped up.

“… They’re bringing their competitive side out at the right time. You want to peaking in March; we’re peaking in March.”