Alabama men's basketball leave NCAA Tournament bubble for Indianapolis Zoo field trip
The Alabama men's basketball team earned their first trip to the Sweet 16 since 2003-04 with Monday's 96-77 win against Maryland.
The Crimson Tide used some time Tuesday to get away from basketball and go to the Indianapolis Zoo.
When they got to the elephants, Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats said, "Roll Tide Roll" in the one-minute video shared by Alabama men's basketball's Instagram account.
The account captioned the video, "Thank you @indianapoliszoo for a great time today! 🐘🐅🐒🦒"
The video also showed Oats petting a shark. Alabama guard John Petty Jr. tried to get a high-five from a monkey through glass.
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Alabama guard Joshua Primo was amazed by several animals, but he settled on a favorite.
"Favorite animal, these walruses over here," Primo said. "These big boys."
Alabama's next opponent in the NCAA Tournament is the UCLA Bruins. There were no bears in the video shared by Alabama.
UCLA also made the trip to the zoo Tuesday. UCLA men's basketball tweeted, "A little fresh air & trip to the Indianapolis Zoo."
Alabama is scheduled to face UCLA at 6:15 p.m. CT on Sunday, March 28.
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No. 2 seed Alabama comes into the matchup 26-6 overall. On Monday, Alabama beat Maryland 96-77 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 11-seeded UCLA enters the game 20-9 overall. UCLA beat Abilene Christian 67-47 in the NCAA Tournament second round on Monday.
Final Four Instagram added a new post on Wednesday with many of the same photos and the caption, "An 🐘, a 🐺 and a 🐻 walk into a zoo for the #BigDance... best punchline wins! #MarchMadness." The new post included photos of Alabama, Gonzaga, Loyola, Michigan, and Oregon.
The Gonzaga men's basketball team also posted a video of its zoo field trip.
Erik Hall is the lead digital producer for sports with the USA Today Network. You can find him on Twitter @HallErik.