Anthony Grant wanted to make a point. He wanted his team to come out of gate roaring. They did. “I wan’t our team to play aggressive, tonight.” Good move. Get the Vandy travesty out of the way, and get refocused. For the first twenty minutes the Crimson Tide went over, around, and through the Ole Miss defense on the way to scoring 47 points. In case you haven’t been watching this year, 47 is almost a game’s worth.
As good as the offense played, the defense in half one was even better. Chris Warren, top runner for SEC Player of the Year didn’t score. Charvez Davis shut him down better than a restraining order. Tony Mitchell didn’t start. He had15 by half time. Trevor Releford, who has to be related to Harry Houdini, had six assists in the first half. Green scored the first six points for Alabama and officially settled the question of who was going to be the big dog on Saturday. Woof, woof.
The Tide looked more like the track team running up and down the floor. Here was the Tide game plan. Make Ole Miss look like a elementary school when they had the ball. Steal so many passes the law needed to called. Get almost every rebound, and then throw the ball down the floor to a streaking Releford who then gave it to Mitchell or Green or Steele or whoever happened to be wide open down the floor. If that didn’t work then let Mitchell, Releford, or Davis play downtown Freddie Brown.
Alabama couldn’t miss, and Ole Miss was so rattled by the Tide defense it looked like the Tide was playing with a junior high team. Make that a girls junior high team. But, all good things come to an end. It was Dr. Jekyll who played half one for Bama. The fatigue was obvious for a team that returned from Nashville morning at 2:00 and then had to play the next day.
In half two, Mr. Hyde decided to make another appearance. It is becoming a trend for this team to get huge first half leads and then hang on. Saturday it happened again. An 18 point lead became a 6 point lead with the Rebels holding the ball. In the blink of an eye the Tide swiped a pass and Scenario Hillman scored an old fashioned three point play. The clock was still running but time had run out on Johnny Reb. 74-64.
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