Antoine Pettway saw him as he looked through the crowd behind Alabama's bench.

Collin Sexton's high school coach, in town for that Bama-Auburn SEC tournament game, had noticed Pettway looking in that direction and put his hands up to get Pettway's attention.

They shared a cool moment when Pettway spotted him, smiling and excitedly pointing at each other as Crimson Tide players finished going through pre-game warm-ups.

It was before one of Sexton's recent big games, a special 31-point performance that propelled Alabama to an 18-point win over Auburn to essentially lock up a spot in the NCAA tournament.

It's the Tide's first NCAA tournament appearance since 2012 and only the fourth for the program since Pettway's final year as an Alabama point guard in 2004.

But while others like Avery Johnson and Sexton deserve a lot of credit for the Tide reaching this point, so does Pettway.

"He's been great," Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne said of Pettway, who has been an assistant coach for the Tide under Mark Gottfried, Anthony Grant and now Johnson. "He's been a great addition to our staff. I'm really impressed by him. Good coach. Good recruiter. And we're really glad to have him as part of our staff."

Sexton, who will go down as one of the great talents in Tide basketball history, probably wouldn't be at Alabama if not for Pettway.

None of the big schools knew about Sexton back in early-to-mid 2015. Neither did Alabama until Pettway noticed Sexton at a 2015 Bama recruiting camp shortly after Johnson took over as head coach.

"I sat down and watched him and I was like 'Whoa. He's pretty good,'" Pettway said. "So you get to looking him up and he's not ranked anywhere, and I'm like 'Even better. That's a diamond in the rough.'"

So Alabama started recruiting him and building a relationship, about a year before Sexton blew up nationally and began getting interest from schools such as Kansas and North Carolina.

"His whole junior year, I would drive over all the time to go watch him play," Pettway said. "And I'd watch him play against guys that were going to North Carolina and guys that were really good and going to Georgia and Georgia Tech, and he was killing 'em, 30 points, 40 points. But when I was over there, no other coaches would be there. So we just built a relationship with Collin. And he's a loyal kid. So some of those blue blood schools came in later to offer him, but he said, 'They didn't want me back then, so why do they want me now?' So he decided to stick with Alabama."

But it goes beyond just Sexton.

The Tide's 2017 recruiting class is the top-ranked group in school history. And all five members of that class have contributed for Alabama this season.

Pettway was the primary recruiter for all five -- Sexton, John Petty, Herbert Jones, Galin Smith and Alex Reese.

"When you talk about a good person, Pettway's just a really, really good person," said Sexton's high school coach, George Washington. "A lot of times when people are trying to build relationships, you don't feel like they're being genuine. But with Collin, he fell in love with Pettway's genuineness. He loves people that are honest and genuine. That stuff means a lot to kids, and I think that's part of why so many kids are looking at Alabama or leaning to Alabama is because of the relationships Pettway has established with those kids. ... He's a great assistant to have. And one day soon, he's going to be a great head coach."

Right now, though, Pettway is hoping for history to repeat itself.

This year's team lost five straight SEC games during the regular season and is playing in an 8/9 game to begin the NCAA tournament. It was the same for Pettway's team in 2004, which ended up bouncing back from those five straight losses and making the deepest NCAA tournament run in school history.

They lost to the eventual national champion, UConn, in the Elite Eight.

Looking to encourage this team heading into the SEC tournament, Pettway brought that up.

He told the players how, like this year, many outside the program doubted that 2004 team after the five-game losing streak. But he emphasized that the season was far from over and that this team is capable of getting back on track and making a run like that team in 2004.

Since then, Alabama beat two NCAA tournament teams in the SEC tournament and is seemingly confident heading into its Round of 64 matchup with Virginia Tech Thursday night.

It's a testament to the mental toughness and resiliency of this young team.

It's also a testament to the work of Johnson as well as others like Pettway.

"I work with some amazing people and I'm so happy with the people I'm surrounded with," Pettway said. "And also, the guys we have in this program have such strong character. I was a senior when it happened (in 2004) and had been through the ups and downs of college. But there's a lot of freshmen and sophomores on this team. And to be able to bounce back after going on a five-game losing streak, it verifies to me that we've got the right kids in the program. And they're doing it. They believe."

Matt Zenitz is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.