Tide Hoops is off to an absolutely scorching start to the season despite what is yet another brutal non-conference schedule put together by Nate Oats.

On Wednesday night, No. 11 Alabama went up to Chicago and took down the No. 8 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini by a score of 90-86 at the United Center in a ‘neutral site’ game that obviously favored Illinois.

It’s the Tide’s second road victory over a top-ten team after defeating St. John’s at Madison Square Garden in the second game of the season, and the team is now 3-1 after narrowly falling to arguably the best team in the country at home in Purdue.

“That’s a good team we just played. They’re going to be competing for a national championship in my opinion. They’re going to be in the mix,” Oats said of Illinois after the game.

“They’re talented, they’ve got depth, they’re hard to keep off the glass. I thought our guys fought and we still got outrebounded, but we fought a lot harder than we did against Purdue. It certainly helped to have Keitenn Bristow, but Amari Allen showed up with 11 rebounds. For a freshman, he’s really stepped up in some big games. We still got outrebounded by two, but it’s a lot better than 24 against Purdue. I’m happy our guys answered the bell.”

For Alabama, it was the performance of sophomore Mobile native Labaron Philon which led the way, pouring in 24 points in 25 minutes with five assists as well powered by a massive second half which saw 19 of his 24 points.

“I felt Labaron, being in foul trouble in the first half, kind of slowed him down a little bit and he played with four fouls,” Oats said of Philon.

“We needed all his points in the second half. He’s been good. We had Houston Mallette coming off the bench for some rotational purposes to help with some rebounding and different stuff. Latrell Wrightsell Jr. has been great for us. He’s still coming back off that Achilles injury, and he’s had a finger injury, so he’s not close to 100 percent, but we put him in. Houston thanked me for giving him an opportunity; he comes off the bench, scored in double figures and seals the game with two free throws. I think he deserves to play well. A lot of different guys answered the bell. It’s a pretty tight-knit group. They’re pulling for each other. We were down the whole first half and we were fighting to be within one at the half with how much we were being outrebounded. I thought we were fortunate and came out in the second half a lot better by taking the lead and making a run to hold them off down the stretch.”

For Alabama under Oats, this is the sixth victory over an AP Top-10 opponent and was the fifth consecutive win for the program over Illinois going back to 1986.

Up next for the Tide is a date with another ranked opponent in Gonzaga on Monday before taking on UNLV the following day, all in Las Vegas for the Thanksgiving week Player’s Era tournament.