Alabama Eliminates Top-Seeded Stanford

March 20, 2004

Comments

Wow: Alabama Eliminates Top-Seeded Stanford

This time, there was no fantastic finish for Stanford.

Dan Grunfeld missed a three-pointer at the buzzer and the Cardinal became the first No. 1 seed to exit the NCAA tournament on Saturday, upset by Alabama 70-67.

Kennedy Winston scored 21 points and eighth-seeded Alabama shot 10-of-14 from the free throw line in the final minute.

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The Tide (19-13) advanced to the round of 16 for the first time since 1991, and Alabama will play next week in Phoenix against Syracuse.

And I missed it. Last season, Alabama was briefly ranked #1 in the country until collapsing and barely making the NCAA tournament. I’m surprised they’ve made it back to the Sweet 16 this year with a team that, on paper at least, isn’t as talented. Roll Tide!

While Alabama is known as a football power, it has now been twelve years since the Tide won a national championship in that sport. Its baseball, basketball, and gymnastics teams have actually been much better than the football team of late.

6 responses to “Alabama Eliminates Top-Seeded Stanford”

mark

March 20, 2004 at 11:00 pm

When you put a tree up against a hoard of elephants, the elephants will simply knock the tree over and move on. Roll Tide!

(disclaimer: Mobile, AL native)
Kevin Drum

March 20, 2004 at 11:43 pm

Yep, it’s been a pretty pathetic year for west coast basketball. This is about par for the course.
mark

March 21, 2004 at 12:00 am

PAC 10 has no one left, if I am not mistaken.

And Alabama teams (Bama and UAB) can be thanked for bouncing two of em (Stanford and Washington)!
Robert Tagorda

March 21, 2004 at 1:16 am

Stanford was overrated all along, so this was no surprise, in my opinion. Not to take anything away from Alabama, though: it was a good win for them, especially since, as you said, it wasn’t as talented this year as it was last year.
Robert Prather

March 21, 2004 at 2:23 am

Does this now make Ms. State the number one seed? If so, heh.