Alabama basketball has its opponent set for the first round of March Madness .
Charleston will play Alabama in the Round of 64 to open the NCAA Tournament bracket. The Crimson Tide (21-11) will be a No. 4 seed. The two teams will play in Spokane, Washington on Friday.
This marks the fourth consecutive year that coach Nate Oats has reached the NCAA Tournament with the Crimson Tide. Over the 13 seasons prior to his arrival, Alabama had only made two NCAA Tournament appearances. Oats is in his fifth season leading the Crimson Tide, and the first year, the NCAA Tournament was canceled because of COVID-19.
Alabama will look to hit reset before it travels to play its first round game. The Crimson Tide hasn't been playing its best basketball of late. Alabama has lost three of the last four games and four of the past six. The latest loss was to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. The Crimson Tide had earned a double bye as the No. 3 seed so that make for a quick trip to Nashville. Defense has too often been an issue for Alabama this season, and it only has gotten worse when the offense has experienced a slide.
"Your effort on defense shouldn't be affected by what happens on offense," Oats said after the loss to Florida. "We've got too many guys I feel like it does. So we're going to have to try to get the attitudes back right and change. If we want to win, we're going to have to focus on defense every possession down."
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Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter .
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama's March Madness opponent is Charleston in 2024 NCAA Tournament
