No. 6 Houston, No. 9 Alabama to collide at Players Era Festival

(Photo credit: Gary Cosby Jr. / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)Alabama reached the Final Four last season and Houston achieved the same milestone three years earlier.

And both teams are among the early favorites to make a deep run in this season's NCAA Tournament.

So it goes that two of the best programs in the nation will share the same court on Tuesdaynight when the No. 9 Crimson Tide battle the sixth-ranked Coug