Alabama Basketball Nearing Historic Lows in 2013-14

Alabama's game with Texas A&M finished in the same way most have this season. A tight game early turned into a loss for the Crimson Tide, which is the only result it's seen away from Coleman Coliseum this season. While the loss moves the team's record to 10-16 overall, it drops it much further down the list in the school's history books.

With forward Nick Jacobs out of the lineup indefinitely and a difficult schedule remaining, the team is staring down directly at a 20-loss season. Where would that stack up in the 101-year history of the Alabama basketball program? Let's take a look.

With the loss to Texas A&M, the 2013-14 team became just the 11th in program history to reach that mark. It last happened seven years ago when Mark Gottfried's squad ended the 2006-07 season with a 17-16 record. In fact, Grant's predecessor reached that loss total twice in his tenure.

Beyond 16 losses, you begin getting into rare territory. Only five teams have lost 17 or more games. Surprisingly, the last occurrence came between Wimp Sanderson's SEC Championship team of 1986-87 and another NCAA Tournament appearance in 1988-89. That turned out to be Wimp's only losing season in 12 years at the Capstone.

At this point, 17 losses would be the absolute best-case scenario for this season when you take into account at least one loss after the regular season ends (likely in the SEC Tournament). Let's just say this team can muster one last stand and finish the regular season 4-1. That would put it at 18 losses, which would only be the fourth time in school history that one team has lost that many games.

Now, any realistic person would surmise that more than 18 losses would be the most likely outcome to the current season. With road games at Ole Miss and Kentucky and three home games against teams that have already beaten Alabama once this year, it's reasonable to believe that 20+ losses will happen.

And that leaves one lone team left to talk about: C.M. Newton's first team in 1968-69. That group finished with a 4-20 record, which will likely stand the test of time as the school's worst ever. While you'd never even consider saying this season ranks as low as that one, Alabama might be one month away from at least giving that team some company in a dubious category.

Now, records can't be argued in a bubble. Each had its own challenges, strengths and weaknesses. This current version has faced one of the most difficult schedules in the nation and rarely looked over-matched, but the wins just haven't materialized.

Saturday presents another opportunity to get the ship righted but Alabama needs to win now. Fans want to forget about this season quickly, but we're approaching a spot where this Crimson Tide team will be remembered forever.