1982–83 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team

1982–83 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball
1982–83 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball
NCAA tournament, First Round
Conference	Southeastern Conference
Record	20–12 (8–10 SEC)
Head coach	Wimp Sanderson (3rd season);
Home arena	Coleman Coliseum
	Seasons ← 1981–82 1983–84 →

1982–83 Southeastern Conference men's basketball standings
v t e	Conf				Overall
Team	W		L	PCT	W		L	PCT
No. 12 Kentucky	13	–	5	.722	23	–	8	.742
LSU	10	–	8	.556	19	–	13	.594
Ole Miss	10	–	8	.556	19	–	12	.613
Vanderbilt	9	–	9	.500	19	–	14	.576
Mississippi State	9	–	9	.500	17	–	12	.586
No. 18 Georgia †	9	–	9	.500	24	–	10	.706
Tennessee	9	–	9	.500	20	–	12	.625
Auburn	8	–	10	.444	15	–	13	.536
Alabama	8	–	10	.444	20	–	12	.625
Florida	5	–	13	.278	13	–	18	.419

† 1983 SEC tournament winner Rankings from AP Poll

The 1982–83 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team represented the University of Alabama in the 1982–83 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team's head coach was Wimp Sanderson, who was in his third season at Alabama. The team played their home games at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They finished the season 18–12, 8–10 in SEC play, and finished in a tie for eighth place.

The key freshman signee was forward Alphonso "Buck" Johnson from Hayes High School in Birmingham, Alabama.

It was an odd year for Sanderson and the Tide. They opened the season with eight consecutive wins, including a victory over Patrick Ewing and 10th ranked Georgetown, who had reached the NCAA Finals the season before. Once conference play began, the Tide struggled, notably losing to Vanderbilt and Ole Miss each twice. Even so, the Tide still managed to post wins over nationally ranked Kentucky (#3) and top-ranked UCLA (the latter notably occurring two days after legendary football coach Bear Bryant's death).

The Tide reached the SEC tournament final and lost to Georgia. They received an at-large bid to the 1983 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, and lost in the first round to Lamar.^[1]

Roster

1982–83 Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team

Players

Coaches

Pos.	#	Name	Height	Weight	Year	Previous school	Hometown
G	3	Ennis Whatley	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	—	So	Phillips High School	Birmingham, Alabama
F/C	34	Bobby Lee Hurt	6 ft 9 in (2.06 m)	—	So	Butler High School	Huntsville, Alabama
F	24	Buck Johnson	6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)	—	Fr	Hayes High School	Birmingham, Alabama
G	44	Mike Davis	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	—	Sr	Fayette High School	Fayette, Alabama
F	33	Cliff Windham	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)	—	Sr	Livingston High School	Emelle, Alabama
G	11	Eric Richardson	6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)	—	Jr	Carver High School	Birmingham, Alabama
F		Eugene Jones	6 ft 6 in (1.98 m)	—	Sr
G		Vance Wheeler	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	—	Sr
F	41	Terry Williams	6 ft 8 in (2.03 m)	—	Jr	Elkmont High School	Elkmont, Alabama
G	23	Rex Jones	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	—	So	Bradshaw High School	Florence, Alabama
C	51	Mark Farmer	6 ft 11 in (2.11 m)	—	So	Arab High School	Arab, Alabama
F	21	Jim Farmer	6 ft 4 in (1.93 m)	—	RS Fr	Houston Academy	Dothan, Alabama

Head coach

Wimp Sanderson

Assistant coach(es)

Legend

(C) Team captain
(S) Suspended
(I) Ineligible
(W) Walk-on

Injured
Current redshirt

Schedule and results

Date time, TV	Rank^#	Opponent^#	Result	Record	Site city, state
Regular season
Nov 29, 1982*	No. 12	Middle Tennessee State	W 103–58	1–0	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Dec 4, 1982*	No. 13	vs. Texas Tech	W 74–53	2–0
Dec 6, 1982*	No. 11	SMU	W 74–56	3–0	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Dec 11, 1982*	No. 11	at Penn State	W 74–65	4–0	Rec Hall University Park, Pennsylvania
Dec 18, 1982*	No. 10	Louisiana Tech	W 88–73	5–0	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Dec 20, 1982*	No. 8	Texas Southern	W 88–58	6–0	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Dec 28, 1982*	No. 6	at USC Winston Tire Classic	W 74–61	7–0	L.A. Sports Arena Los Angeles, California
Dec 29, 1982*	No. 6	vs. No. 10 Georgetown Winston Tire Classic	W 94–73	8–0	L.A. Sports Arena (10,940) Los Angeles, California
Jan 3, 1983	No. 5	at Florida	L 85–89	8–1 (0–1)	Stephen C. O'Connell Center Gainesville, Florida
Jan 5, 1983	No. 5	at Auburn	L 80–91	8–2 (0–2)	Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum Auburn, Alabama
Jan 8, 1983	No. 5	No. 3 Kentucky	W 74–67	9–2 (1–2)	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Jan 11, 1983	No. 10	Vanderbilt	L 79–81	9–3 (1–3)	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Jan 15, 1983	No. 10	at Georgia	L 64–67	9–4 (1–4)	Stegeman Coliseum Athens, Georgia
Jan 18, 1983		at Tennessee	L 64–73	9–5 (1–5)	Stokely Athletic Center Knoxville, Tennessee
Jan 28, 1983*		at No. 1 UCLA	W 70–67	11–6	Pauley Pavilion (12,574) Los Angeles, California
Mar 6, 1983		Auburn	W 86–78	17–10 (8–10)	Coleman Coliseum Tuscaloosa, Alabama
SEC Tournament
Mar 10, 1983*		vs. Auburn First Round	W 62–61	18–10	Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Birmingham, Alabama
Mar 11, 1983*		vs. No. 10 Kentucky Quarterfinals	W 69–64	19–10	Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Birmingham, Alabama
Mar 12, 1983*		vs. Mississippi State Semifinals	W 51–50	20–10	Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Birmingham, Alabama
Mar 13, 1983*		vs. Georgia Championship game	L 71–86	20–11	Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Birmingham, Alabama
NCAA Tournament
Mar 17, 1983*	(6 MW)	vs. (11 MW) Lamar	L 50–73	20–12	The Summit Houston, Texas
*Non-conference game. ^#Rankings from AP poll. (#) Tournament seedings in parentheses.

Rankings

^[2]

References

^ "1982-83 Alabama Crimson Tide Roster and Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.
^ *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 899–900. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[1] "1982-83 Alabama Crimson Tide Roster and Stats". College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com.

[ESPN-2] *ESPN College Basketball Encyclopedia: The Complete History of the Men's Game. Random House. 2009. pp. 899–900. ISBN 978-0-345-51392-2.

[1]

[2]

v t e Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball
Venues	Little Hall (1915–1939) Foster Auditorium (1939–1968) Coleman Coliseum (1968–present)
Rivalries	Auburn
Culture & lore	Traditions Big Al Gambling scandal 2017–18 corruption scandal
People	Head coaches NBA players Statistical leaders
Seasons	List of seasons 1912–13 1913–14 1914–15 1915–16 1916–17 1917–18 1918–19 1919–20 1920–21 1921–22 1922–23 1923–24 1924–25 1925–26 1926–27 1927–28 1928–29 1929–30 1930–31 1931–32 1932–33 1933–34 1934–35 1935–36 1936–37 1937–38 1938–39 1939–40 1940–41 1941–42 1942–43 1943–44 1944–45 1945–46 1946–47 1947–48 1948–49 1949–50 1950–51 1951–52 1952–53 1953–54 1954–55 1955–56 1956–57 1957–58 1958–59 1959–60 1960–61 1961–62 1962–63 1963–64 1964–65 1965–66 1966–67 1967–68 1968–69 1969–70 1970–71 1971–72 1972–73 1973–74 1974–75 1975–76 1976–77 1977–78 1978–79 1979–80 1980–81 1981–82 1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89 1989–90 1990–91 1991–92 1992–93 1993–94 1994–95 1995–96 1996–97 1997–98 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 2003–04 2004–05 2005–06 2006–07 2007–08 2008–09 2009–10 2010–11 2011–12 2012–13 2013–14 2014–15 2015–16 2016–17 2017–18 2018–19 2019–20 2020–21 2021–22 2022–23 2023–24 2024–25
Premo-Porretta national championship in bold; NCAA Final Four appearance in italics