ESPN Analytics believes Alabama has a good chance to shove all of the Charles Bediako distractions aside and go win a road SEC basketball game on Wednesday night.
The BPI is giving the Crimson Tide a 64.7% shot to travel to Oxford and beat Ole Miss when the rivals collide in a 7 p.m. ET tipoff on SEC Network. Alabama bounced back from that gruesome loss at Florida on Feb. 1 with 2 huge SEC victories over Texas A&M and Auburn last week, and the Tide will look to keep rolling on the road against a reeling Rebels team that’s lost 5 in a row.
Alabama remains unranked but is suddenly sitting at 6-4 in the SEC and 16-7 overall, as it continues to try to distance itself from the Florida disaster in Gainesville and now also will aim to break free from the shackles of the Bediako ruling. That came down on Monday night, as a judge ruled that the big man is no longer eligible to play for the Crimson Tide.
So, without the services of Bediako now, Bama will try to hand Ole Miss its 6th loss in a row, with the Rebels sitting near the bottom of the league standings at 3-7. Ole Miss has also fallen below .500 overall at 11-12, but it’ll have a prime chance in a spotlight situation to take down the Tide and get back on the winning track.
The Rebels also, of course, won’t have to deal with Bediako and will likely host an Alabama team that’s still trying to get over the controversial ruling a few days prior.
The SEC and the college basketball world will see exactly how Bama responds in its first conference test since the ruling came down.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
