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...