Paul Finebaum has a simple expectation for Alabama as it enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, and Nate Oats specifically.

“I think he has to take it to where Alabama basketball has never gone, that’s very simple, it’s the Final Four,” he said on his regular appearance on “McElroy and Cubelic In the morning” on WJOX out of Birmingham, Alabama.

Finebaum recalled the time 20 years ago when the Crimson Tide made the Sweet 16, and recalled how teams coached by CM Newton and Wimp Sanderson “never escaped” the second weekend.

“I think that’s what it’s all about, the Elite 8 is no longer the benchmark, it used to be, until Bruce Pearl took Auburn to the Final Four,” Finebaum said.

Finebaum clarified that the goal is not to win the championship: “This isn’t football, where you start the season ranked No. 1 as Nick Saban has so many times and anything but winning feels like a failure. I think the Final Four is the goal because it would be sad to use a word that can be interpreted in many different ways, but it’s a little stronger than disappointing to see Alabama, after all this, not make it to the final weekend of the year.”