Men's Wheelchair Basketball Season Preview

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The University of Alabama men’s wheelchair basketball team is coming off a national championship season.

Coach Ford Burttram noticed that the energy and work ethic was stronger this past summer than it had been the previous two summers when the team was coming off losses in the national championship game, though he stopped short of direct attribution.

The University of Alabama men's wheelchair basketball team celebrates after beating the University of Arizona 73-68 in the national championship game on March 18, 2023 
(photo courtesy of Alabama Adapted Athletics)

The 2023-2024 season begins with the Tide Tipoff exhibition on Oct. 13 at home at Stran-Hardin Arena. The first tournament of the season is the ABC Medical Classic, also at Stran-Hardin Arena, on Oct. 28 and 29.

The ABC Medical Classic and the Jalapenos Invitational, which will take place at Stran-Hardin Arena on Nov. 11, both consist of non-division National Wheelchair Basketball Association (NWBA) games.

Alabama’s first NWBA Intercollegiate Division games will take place at the Auburn University Tournament, with two games each on Dec. 15 and 16.

“That’s a good measuring stick for us before we go home for the Christmas Break,” said Burttram. “We get to really see where we’re at in the college division and how we stack up and if we’re headed in the right direction or if we need to make some adjust ents.”

See also: Men's Wheelchair Basketball Schedule Highlights

The Crimson Tide will open the Auburn University Tournament against the University of Illinois, and their third game of the tournament will be against the University of Arizona.

Those two teams accounted for Alabama’s two division losses last season (when it went 18-2 in division play). The loss to Illinois was by five points, 58-53, and the loss to Arizona was by four points, 64-60

Alabama did beat Illinois in the two team’s other three matchups last season, including a 66-59 victory in the national championship tournament semifinals. It also beat Arizona 73-68 in a the national tournament championship game, the only other time the two teams met last season.

“I think the game we lost against Illinois was a silly one,” said junior Josh Hipps. “But the game against Arizona is definitely one that we want back.”

The game against Arizona at the Auburn University Tournament will be the first of three times that the two teams will meet over the course of the regular season. Alabama will play Auburn at the Auburn University tournament in the first of four regular season meetings between the two teams.

“When we play a team multiple times, it really gives us an understanding of how they operate and what they want to do,” said Burttram. “It gives us an understanding of what we can use to our strengths and what we can use against them as their weaknesses and how we can incorporate that into our practice plans as we’re preparing for the national tournament.”

One noticeable difference this season is that the team will be without Ignacio Ortega -- who led the team in points, rebounds, and assists this past season -- who graduated this past spring.

“Iggy was a generational player, so you don’t try to make that all up in one fell swoop,” said Burttram. “You add different pieces that add different parts of their games; you do it collaboratively, and I think that’s how this team will do it.”

See also: 2023-2024 Men's Wheelchair Basketball Roster

Hipps acknowledged that the team has a target on its back as defending national champions.


Josh Hipps (center) is looking to take on more of a leadership role in his junior season
(photo courtesy of Alabama Adapted Athletics)

“We talk a lot about not looking for the national championship and just putting the work in throughout the season and then that will be the outcome if we do it properly,” said Hipps. “But we still have a lot of pieces that led to that win, it’s kind of still on the back of all of our minds and it’s an expectation that I think all of us have.”

The 2023-2024 season will culminate in the NWBA Intercollegiate Division national championship tournament at Southwest Minnesota State University on March 13-16, where the Crimson Tide will be looking for back-to-back national championships and the program’s fifth national championship overall.

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