17 points in the first half...

Alabama's offense is horrible...

"It's that round orange thing
on the front of the backboard"

     It's enough to make you want to run down to the edge of the Court and scream, "somebody at least try to shoot the ball." What difference does it make it you recruit great three point shooters if they won't shoot? What good is it if you have an All-Conference power forward who never touches the ball. The word is out on Alabama. If they can't score baskets on the open break they probably won't score enough to be win. In fact, they probably won't score enough to even be competitive. All week we've heard basketball gurus say the Tide was ready to make a deep run in the NCAA.  Run? This team can no longer walk on offense. Sad to say, a lot of hard work by some young players without Green and Mitchell is going be wasted.  You wonder how a team that fought so hard can simply fall apart in two games. A least they won one of those two games. Now the Tide is a 5th seed and will play on Thursday. Maybe Bama can pull themselves together and win a couple of games in the SEC Tournament. It they do that they can finish all the pre-NCAA games with a 22-11 record. Luckily, the Tide will have played the a schedule which will get them to the big dance. Or perhaps for this team it will be the slow fox trot. 

     You watch the team in pre-game drills and the shoot around and they looked like zombies. It's one thing to be loose, another to look dead. I have no idea what is going on. It was that way in the Auburn game, and it looked even worse in Oxford. In all honesty, I can't remember an Alabama that looked so confused or unconcerned. No disrespect to Green, but it looks like his return has settled the team into a look of complacency on the part of the team. Not Green. Green is hustling. So as the second half started you had to wonder if Alabama would be so much road kill or they'd scratch and claw themselves out of a deep hole. 

    The immediate answer was to score 5 baskets in the first 3:15 of half two. That's only one less than Bama had in the first half. Grant made a couple of things clear - Green is going to get the ball one way or the other, and win or lose the game was going to get more physical. It was a 13-4 and Bama pulled to within 4 from the 11 point ditch. The lead was cut to four on two occasions, but a couple of things were pretty obvious. Ole Miss had the size and mobility to cut off the inside in the long run, and they were also quick enough to negate the Bama press. That was a bad combination for Grant. You watched the Rebels play and wonder how they lost so many games. Alabama cut the lead to 43-39 when the Rebels got an offensive basket interference that the officials counted. That would turn out to be a big momentum swing. In the blink of the eye lead was 47-39 with 8:54 left. 

   If you were in the house it was clear that Ole Miss had more engergy. The Rebels were able to get the ball inside with ease. The only thing keeping the game within reach was poor free throw shooting by the Rebels. Ole Miss could have been ahead by 20+. The only reason that gave me any reason to think we might have a chance to win was the fact that Ole Miss was allowing the Tide to hang around.  To make things worse the PA kept announcing that Tennessee was pounding Vandy. Let me say this and just get it over with - Bama didn't deserve to win. They didn't do enough to win.

     With 5 minutes left the Tide had cut the lead to six on Reford's two free throws. it was 45-51. Meanwhile, the PA announcer said that Vandy had cut the lead to 3 with 4 minutes left in the game. This was cruel and unusual punishment.  Ole Miss was trying to give Bama a chance to win, but Alabama couldn't capitalize. Cooper fires a stolen pass about 10 feet over Ben Eblen's head. It was that kid of afternoon.  

    The Crimson Tide gave it a shot in the second half. They came up short. They looked confused. They had no offensive flow. Despite the fact that Alabama gave up only 60  points. You have to really play bad on offense to lose when you give up that few points.  This Alabama team is a really a bad offensive team. Ole Miss did not play a great game.  I don't won't to take anything away from the Rebels, but Alabama was dreadful, atrocious, and worse. Tennessee beats Vandy.

   Hello Mr. 5 seed on Thursday. We couldn't win a game in Oxford if the Alabama men played the Ole Miss Women's team. 

• Releford had another lackluster game. He made a three in the second half to cut Ole Miss lead to four. 
• I thought that putting Mitchell on the high post picked up the Bama offense.
• Eblen had a couple on nice dish and drives. I have no idea why any defense would collapse on him.Pehaps it was just just habit. It certainly isn't sensible.
• Jacobs is going to be a good player. Some strength will help him.
• I think, for better or worse, Alabama is going to have to jack up some threes and see what happens. If they don't what difference does it make?
• One other thing that concerns me - I don't think we have as much talent as first thought. I'd like to know what you guys think about that.

More tomorrow if I escape this god - forbidden state.