To the joy of thousands of crimson-clad fans, top-ranked Alabama rolled through Birmingham and into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

The Tide made it through the first two rounds with little difficulty, soundly beating Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Maryland.

“The chance to go to the Sweet 16,” said Head Coach Nate Oats. “I thought that was great for our program, great for the state of Alabama, great for the city of Birmingham. So just thank whoever is responsible for bringing the tournament here and putting it on. It was good.

“Thought we had a pretty good crowd, pro-Alabama crowd …”

Oats said the Tide got off to a slow start before wrapping up their ninth appearance in the Sweet 16 – twice in the last three seasons.

“The start of the game wasn’t what we wanted,” he said. “I think they hit their first four field goals. We hung in there. Our defense picked up from there.

“It was a great game.”

The Crimson Tide will face the No. 5 seed in the South Region, San Diego State, on Friday. The game will be at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville with tipoff 5:30 CT.

“Looking forward to playing San Diego State up in Louisville,” Oats said. “We’ll be ready to go Friday.”

Oats also thanked the city of Birmingham for hosting the game and the opportunity to play in front of a “hometown” crowd.

“I’d like to thank the city of Birmingham and everybody for putting this on,” he said. “It’s been unbelievable to play in front of our hometown fans.”

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.