The Alabama men's basketball team is set to start on Nov. 25 against Jacksonville State. Before the 2020-21 season starts in 12 days the team has received recognition in preseason polls.

Alabama is ranked  No. 25 in USA Today Coaches Preseason Poll, which was released on Thursday. Last week the Tide received 50 votes from the Associated Press top 25 preseason poll and is ranked No. 29. The top rankings do not stop there, the Crimson Tide is also ranked No. 14 in Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook preseason rankings. The Stadium had Alabama ranked at No. 18 nationally.

Alabama was one of the few SEC teams ranked in USA Today top 25 poll. Kentucky No. 9 and Tennessee No. 14 were the only additional SEC teams to be in the top tier.  The other schools who received votes include No. 27 Florida ( 52 votes), No. 29 LSU ( 27 votes), and No. 45 Arkansas ( 2 votes).

The Crimson Tide basketball team has a higher expectation with four returning starters, including three All-SEC performers- and seven letter winners from last season's team.  Senior guard John Petty, who was recently named All-SEC first team, senior forward Alex Reese, senior forward/guard Herbert Jones, and sophomore guard Jaden Shackelford.

Alabama will also have three red shirted payers from last season returning. These players are highly ranked for the upcoming 2020-21 season. Freshman forward Juwan Gary, sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly, and junior forward James Rojas.

In addition to all the returnees, the Crimson Tide welcomes six new comers onto the team. The newbies made up the nations ninth ranked signing class and No. 12 overall by 247 sports.com. However, this ranking did not include graduate transfer Jordan Bruner. Bruner earned first-team All-Ivy League honors last season at Yale.

The new team members for the Tide will consist of freshman guard Jaden Quinerly, freshman guard Joshua Primo, freshman forward Darius Miles, junior guard Keon Ellis, freshman forward  Keon Ambrose, grad- transfer forward Kendall Wall, freshman forward Alex Tchikou, and grad-transfer Bruner.

The new freshman forward Tchikou is already out for the upcoming 2020-21 season after suffering an Achilles injury during practice.  Tichikou was highly ranked and expected to make a great impact on the team. The French native was No. 36 overall player and the No. 6 power forward in the 2020 class.

Alabama men's basketball team is set to start on Wednesday Nov. 25 against Jacksonville State.

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