Alabama set for their first SEC game...

      Tuesday night at eight P.M., the Tide opens their SEC season with the Ole Miss Rebels. Normally, a home game with the Rebels would be a fun night. That is not going to be the case this time. This will be a pressure-packed game for Nat Oats as his team hopes to right a shaky ship.  

      Expectations soared in the off-season. The Tide stands at 5-3 right now. I thought the Tide would have been 7-1. The Tide could have won a couple of games that we tossed column due to horrible outside shooting. Bad shooting and poor shot selection killed the Tide in all three losses. Poor free-throw shooting was thrown in for good measure. I mean, if you are playing bad, why not throw in the entire enchilada?  Add in 15+ turnovers and getting killed on the boards, and that completed the hat-trick for Alabama. All in all, the three losses and even a couple of the wins gave us a night of terrible basketball.

    Alabama could have won two of those games even though they shot the ball poorly. Late game turnovers seemed to be a part of the game plan, as the Tide squandered a couple of leads. No more messing around now for Oats trying to find which players will be in his rotation. It is time to put up or shut up. Frankly, I have no idea what we'll see. I have been told that the two suspended players from the last game will be back. 

     Assuming Petty is back in the starting line up, the Tide is likely to start Quineraly, Bruner, Jones, and Shackleford. Shack showed Tide fans that his shooting slump may be over. Petty has been one of the walking dead on the offensive end. If the senior can get his shooting eye back, the Tide will be competitive. Quinerly had a good game against East Tennessee State. Ole Miss is not ESTU, however. The Rebels are playing excellent basketball. Kermit Davis is a good coach. The Ole Miss head coach is very underrated. The Rebels are 5-1. The only good team, the Rebels, have played was an affair against the Dayton Flyers. Ole Miss lost that game. 

    The Tide needs to shoot better, reduce turnovers, make their free throws, and break even on the boards. If you wonder what has been wrong with the team, just look at areas of needed improvement. A lot of those problems might be remedied by a set player rotation, I believe.  

I will have more tomorrow...

   

 BEING A TIDE BASKETBALL FAN IS TOUGH

    If you are an Alabama basketball fan, you learn to suffer but always hope. You hope for things you may never see. You try to believe in the future. It rarely comes true; you still return to hoping.  You wish for something that may never occur. Wait, that's not correct. You want something that probably won't come true. Still...

   You can always try to temper your expectations, but the love of anything makes that impossible.  Whether it's a woman or basketball, we all make horrible decisions. It seems we are incapable of being rational. For some reason, the suffering never eradicates our desire to see Alabama become a basketball power.  Take me, for example. I continue to believe that the next coach at Alabama will change things. I started loving Alabama when Johnny Dee coached the Rocket Eight. 

   I watched the longest shot in college basketball. George Linn launched a Foster Auditorium shot that went through the rafters and bottomed out 88 feet and 11 inches later.  The North Carolina head coach had the forethought to mark the spot.    Today, I still believe that Jerry Harper is one of the greatest Alabama players to lace 'em up. As a senior in '55-'56, he averaged 19 rebounds a game.  Think about that for a moment. Let that sink as the current vernacular of social media says.  

    Today, I think how good this current team would be if Leon Douglas walked on the court, or how about Roy Rogers?  There is always an enigma, isn't there? It is a puzzle we can't seem to solve.  Something is forever missing. We are one player short; we can't make free throws or fall one win short of making the NCAA Tournament. The ball is round, so it should bounce straight, but it doesn't. It is as if the laws of gravity conspire against us.  If Alabama basketball was a story, it would be a Grecian tragedy.  Perhaps the football team uses all the good luck up before the basketball season begins. I just don't know. 

   In my lifetime, I have seen the two great Alabama teams. The first would be the 1987 team coached by Sanderson. Derrick Mckey was the Alabama star.  The 1976 team was far and away the best team Alabama put on the floor. A couple of years after that loss to Indiana,  I sat next to Bobby Knight in Birmingham, watching a hoop star the Hoosiers wanted to sign.  He told me that Alabama was the best team in the NCAA in 1976. He quickly added next to Indiana. He kind of threw in the next to Indiana part to cover his bases. In my opinion, Alabama has had three top-notch coaches. Those are John Dee, Wimp Sanderson, and C.M. Newton. Of the three, I'd put Wimp first. But it is a close call. Most fans don't remember Coach Dee. 

    I've been blessed to see a lot of things. I saw Wendall Hudson play his first game at Alabama. He was the first black American player for Alabama. I got to be friends with several SEC coaches I still call friends. I watched Alabama play all over the world. In the summer, the players invited me to play half-court games with them. I've seen some sad things. I went to Charles Cleveland's funeral.  What a pleasure knowing the players and coaches. I used to radio shows with Ben Cook and Herb Winches. It was to promote basketball because it was the red-headed child of Alabama sports. It still it. 

   None of this means Alabama can't be great again. After all, hope springs eternal, indeed. It will cause me suffering but perhaps brings me joy. It is a cross that Alabama basketball fans carry. Roll Tide and Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year to you and your families.

 Tide needs to fix some problems...

    I wanted to let the football and CFP news die down a bit before discussing Alabama's performance in the Western Kentucky game. Losing is never fun. It's much harder to write about a lost game than a winning one. Waiting a few days and watching the game again gives some clarity to what happened. I hope this post provides some both positive and negative commentary.

   I have to say the game was troublesome in several areas. Alabama has some problems. The staff can address some issues in practice, but others will not be so easy to fix. Shooting is always fluctuating between hot and cold. Currently, the term I'd use for Tide shooting is "have you ever been to the South Pole." Petty, Quinerly, and Shack are struggling. Practice can help with most of these shooting problems. Practice also involves when to shoot and when to keep moving the ball. Alabama is not reversing the court with any regularity. That is going to make you take better shots. The free throw shooting is better, and I've noticed a correlation between the free throws and field goals made. The bottom line is that shooting will get better

     I have been impressed with the defense. Last season the defense was how many points the offense could score. That might be an overstatement. In the Furman and Western Kentucky games, the defense gave Alabama a chance to win in the second half. The tide took a three-lead in the Western Kentucky game but couldn't hold it. My point is the Bama defense played well enough to win. Alabama has no answer to a big inside player, however.

     Two problems concern me. First, the Alabama point-guard play isn't good enough to win. Alabama hasn't replaced Lewis, Jr. Quinerly, a five-star recruit and a Parade All-American in high school hasn't played to his ability. I'm not sure what the problem is. Oats seem more comfortable playing Herb Jones at the point. Jones isn't a deadly outside shooter, and he doesn't dish when he goes inside. He also has a hard time finishing at the basket. Playing Jones at the point is, how do I say it, a unique move. I don't see it being a long term solution to our point-guard situation. Herb gives the Tide leadership and effort,  however. 

   Rebounding isn't up to SEC standards. Part of rebounding is technique. You have to block out. We don't do that well. The second part is an effort. I see effort from Petty, Shackleford, and Rojas. Rojas got limited minutes in the WKU game. Bruner isn't what I'd call a big man. He is a good rebounder, given the fact that he hangs around the three-point line. In theory, if you put your big man on the perimeter, it might cause the opponent's inside man to come outside. What Stansbury did was let his power forward to guard  Bruner and Reese.

    Shackleford and Petty cannot win the battle of the boards. Each gives it their best effort. Petty has to rebound and guard the small forwards and two guards. You can't rebound missed shots when you guard on the perimeter. The final thing regarding our inside game is playing your big men on the arc allows opponents to penetrate. 

    When the shots fall, this team will look better, but Oats needs to address and fix a few problems. He can only do what his roster allows him to do. 

ROJAS LIGHTS A FIRE...  

  

 A thumbs up to Bamathor for posting - that as we look back on this basketball season, it may well be that James Rojas turned the page for Nat Oats. Rojas turned vicious under the boards and on the floor to start a comeback against Furman. It seemed to me that JR lit a fire for the Tide. Rojas has gotten a lot of criticism from fans about his play. A torn ACL kept him off the court for over a year. Juan Gary contributed to the comeback as well. Gary is strong, and he can help the Tide under the boards. Of course, Herb Jones elevated his game in the second half. 

     You might recall my post at the end of the first half. Furman played a tremendous first half. They had won 25 games for the last two seasons and are a lock for the NCAA field o 64. In the first half, Petty, Shackelford, and Quineraly were 0 for everything. When your three leading scorers get shut down, you won't be leading. Alabama picked up their defense in the second half. Furman didn't get a lot of uncontested shots. The Tide took better shots in half two, and slowly Alabama overcame the ten-point Furman lead. Alabama took their first lead with 1:13 left on the clock when Rojas buried a three to give the Tide a three-point lead.

      The main reason Alabama won the game was winning the battle of the boards. Alabama had a commanding 49-28 lead on the glass. The offensive rebounds gave Alabama a lot of second and third shots that helped overcome shooting. Bama had 21 offensive boards. Furman had only 5

1. Tough defense and rebounding won the game for 'Bama.
2. The was only 50% from the free-throw line.
3. Quinerly strangely disappeared
4. Shackelford refound his touch in the second half. He is the dynamo for this team. He needs to play as much as possible.
5. Petty continues his slump. He will find his touch again. Shooters have to shoot. 
6. Oats is shortening his bench. That should lead to more cohesion on the floor.
7. Alabama will find itself in a war with Western Kentucky. Rick Stansbury will once again be on the sideline at Coleman.
8. Three years is usually needed to turn a program around. The boo birds need to shut up.
9. 
   

MVP OF THE GAME: tie between Jones and Rojas.

Tide clicks on all cylinders to beat the Friars...

   

Alabama put together a complete game to beat Providence 88-71. The Tide shot 53% in the second half to open up a commanding 23 point lead. The Friars put together a run to cut the lead to 11, but triple threes put the game away for Alabama, but it was rebounding that made the difference. The Tide outboarded the Friars 48-28, and that was the difference. 18 of those boards were offensive—the Tide had13 turnovers. The Friar run in the second half was the result of several turnovers. Alabama settled down and put the game away with the beforementioned three-pointers. It was Alabama's third win of the young season. 

OBSERVATIONS:

1. Alex Reese had a good game. He was 2-4 from downtown. His key contribution was leaning on the Friars big man inside. 

2. John Primo statistically had the best game of any Tide player. He was three of six from behind the arc, pulled down three boards, and had a steal. It is becoming clear that Primo is going to be one heck of a player.

3.John Petty was, well, John Petty. His 16 points led the Tide. He also had 5 rebounds and was 5-6 from the free-throw line. Petty made only 1 of 6 three-pointers, but he is the team leader.

4. Alabama won the battle of boards by 48-28. Alabama got 18 extra attempts due to the offensive rebounds. That was the key stat to me. If Alabama wins off the glass, they win a lot of games.

5. Bruner played well, but he's not a true interior player. He made a three and pulled down a few boards. He fits the Oat's scheme because he is an outside threat. He is a great passer, as well. When the other team has to commit their inside player to the perimeter, you get more offensive boards.

6. Alabama made 78% of their free throws. That is a huge percentage and will pay off in close games. 

7. I think Quinerly needs to distribute the ball more, and I suspect he will. He is a good outside shooter and can penetrate for lay-ups.  He's an outstanding player and

has given Alabama a more than adequate replacement for Kira Lewis. He hasn't played much in the last year, so he'll elevate his have even more.

     Alabama now takes off ten days for final exams and preparation for Clemson.  That game will be played, pandemic allowing, in the Holiday Hoopsgiving played in Atlanta Georgia. 

     

   

 TIDE SHOOTS 57% IN 2nd HALF TO BEAT UNLV . . . 

     Some will complain about the Tide's win over UNLV.  They'd be wrong to do so. After a lackluster loss to Stanford, the Tide came in to soundly beat UNLV. The final score was 82-64. From a fan's perspective, it was a great game to watch. Bama's John Petty and UNLV's Caleb Grill both put on a shooting exhibition. Both players shot lights out from downtown. Grill couldn't miss in the first half. Petty opened up the game by draining two consecutive three-point shots. The UNLV small forward made 6 threes in the first half, but only on in the second half. The Tide mixed up their man coverage to shut him down. Petty made 6 threes. It was some great basketball to watch. 

When you rely on an offense that includes a ton of three-point attempts, you are going to have some bad games. Sorry, it's the truth. Cutting down on turnovers and better rebound will help. Do all three of those things, and you will beat some great teams. 

Why did the Tide win?

l. The Tide shot 48% from the floor and 57% in the second half. 

2. Nat Oats played fewer players and got some consistency on the floor.

3. John Petty had 22,Jahvon Quinerly had 19, and Herb Jones had 18. Balanced scoring helps

4. The Tide only lost the rebound war by 1. Rebounding needs to be improved. 

5. Good help off the bench. I think Josh Primo showed us he is going to a star and a solid contribution this season. 

TONIGHT'S GAME:

KenPom has Alabama a one-point favorite tonight. Providence was picked third in the Big East. The game time is 6:00 PM CST. The winner of tonight's game will 5th place. It means Alabama could be the winner of the losers bracket.  

Providence held on last night to beat Davidson College by one point. 

     

Tide stumbles against Stanford...

    Jack Nicklaus once said, "good putting covers up a multitude of sins." You can apply the same regarding shooting as basketball. Alabama, whose offense seems to live and die by the three, made only 23% from downtown against Stanford. That was the main reason the Tide got embarrassed in their first game of the Maui Classic. Add 15 turnovers to the mix, and Alabama dug their own grave. 

Alabama kept it close in the first half, but slowly the turnovers, poor shooting, and rebounded killed the Tide. Alabama also took too many questionable or even horrible shots. Once again, Alabama didn't finish enough inside shots to win. I'm sure this game is going to light up posting boards on several internet sites. 

It is going to take some time for this team to gel. Alabama played a helter-skelter game against Jax State but had enough athleticism to win. When you play a good team like Stanford, it will beat you every time. Alabama looks out of sorts, confused, and it will take some time. One game isn't the end of the season. The boo birds will flock to add their opinions. Let's move on. Nothing to see here, as the saying goes. The entire SEC is off to a bad start. A couple of horrible officiating calls early on put the Tide's game plan in jeopardy as well.

Alabama plays UNLV tonight. The Tide is an 8 point favorite.