Of all the times for Alabama basketball to make history ...

Approximately 850 miles from the Iron Bowl and just as things were wrapping up in Jordan-Hare Stadium, the Crimson Tide basketball team found itself in a pickle few teams have faced in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Like some kind of practice drill or video game simulation, the No. 25-ranked team in the nation faced a power play it never imagined.

Five-on-three basketball came to the Barclays Center in a meeting of ranked teams. Already down two injured players, the Tide had seven ejected for leaving the bench during a fight. Dazon Ingram then fouled out. And John Petty went down with an ankle injury.

So, it was down to Collin Sexton, Riley Norris and Galin Smith to play more than 10 minutes against a fully stocked No. 14 Minnesota. The Golden Gophers won, 89-84.

It begs a few questions:

What's the rule on this?

Has this happened before?

First, the rule states a team must use five players if five are healthy and available. Teams can play with fewer than five as long as the referees believe the shorthanded team can still win the game.

Why were so many players ejected? NCAA rules state anyone who leaves the bench in a fight gets tossed. It didn't appear as if any of the bench players joined the scrum and a few took just one or two steps onto the floor before backing up. Still, that's enough to get the thumb.

Perhaps the craziest thing about this is what happened after Alabama was reduced to three. The Tide actually outscored the Golden Gophers 30-22 after going two men down.

Next, the historical context.

-- A 2016 junior college game in North Dakota actually ended with one team down to two players, according to inforum.com. United Tribes was down to the near minimum in double overtime of a 158-154 double overtime loss to Dakota College at Bottineau in a tournament game. It was the second time that season United Tribes played with fewer than five.

-- A JV high school team in New Mexico won a 2014 game on a buzzer beater despite being down to three players, according to Yahoo Sports.

-- Florida Gulf Coast was on a foreign tour in 2016 facing a pro team in the Caribbean. Injuries, suspensions and fouls limited FGCU to three players in the end of a game it won 82-79, ESPN reported.

-- UC San Diego won a 2015 game with four players, The Union-Tribune wrote.

-- And this January, UAB beat Louisiana Tech in Birmingham after the visitors were limited to four players for the final six minutes. It was a situation similar to Alabama's in Brooklyn where players were ejected for leaving the bench during a fight.

Coincidentally, Alabama's next game is 7 p.m. CT Wednesday in Coleman Coliseum against ... Louisiana Tech.

The whole situation Saturday in Brooklyn left Alabama coach Avery Johnson blown away.

"That's a new one right there," he said. "It's amazing when you come into a game and you don't expect anything like that to happen. But we didn't make any excuses. We were still in the huddle drawing up plays, trying to solve problems and our guys executed with some of the screening action that we ran to try to get some of our guys free. We tried to punch it inside around the free throw line and use Collin's (Sexton) speed and Riley's (Norris) shooting ability. There was no surrendering our team, and that's the bright spot about today's game."

Sexton, the five-star freshman scored 40 points as one of the three left to play. It was the first 40-point game for an Alabama player since Reggie King had 43 against Virginia Tech in 1978.

The star rookie went viral online in a video of him pretending to slap hands with invisible teammates after a free throw during the 5-on-3 action. Even NBA star Dwyane Wade posted the video of Sexton running the show on Twitter.

The seven ejections came at the 13:43 mark in the second half. Ingram then fouled out with 11:37 left to make it 5 on 4. Petty landed on a player's foot, injuring his ankle with 10:41 remaining to set up the 5-on-3 finale.

Alabama (5-1) finished with 177 combined minutes played to Minnesota's standard 200.

The Tide trailed by as many as 18 points before somehow coming back for the five-point final margin.

Norris had 13 points and Galin Smith had 10.

The game didn't air on television, but was a Facebook exclusive broadcast. As of Sunday evening, the game was viewed 310,000 times on the social media website.

It appeared to be more of a national sensation than a local one.

All of this just happened to go down just as the entire state of Alabama was fixated on the football field in Auburn.

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande.

**Things get wild with 51 minutes left in the broadcast.**