Alabama basketball drops second game in five-day period
Alabama basketball is struggling right now. After starting the year 4-0, the Crimson Tide has now dropped its second game in only five days. The first loss of the season came at the hands of Ohio State (5-1), who beat them 92-81 on Friday. Then after a nice bounce-back win over Oregon (4-2) on Saturday, UA has lost again. This time, it was an 85-77 loss to a now 6-0 Clemson squad.
The 77 points were a season-low so far for Alabama, but the offensive end wasn’t the primary issue. Don’t get me wrong, shooting 34.8% from the field isn’t a good thing by any means, but the Crimson Tide struggled even more on the defensive end of the court. Clemson shot 52.4% from beyond the arc, which is a similar percentage to the 55.6% we saw from Ohio State last week. Plus, you saw Alabama’s bigs get bullied a lot in the paint.
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Nick Pringle and freshman Jarin Stevenson both struggled particularly in that area. The Plus/Minus for Stevenson was -9 while the Pringle was even worse at -14. In fact, West Virginia transfer Mohamed Wague got the start over Pringle on Tuesday. Grant Nelson was the only big to get a block (2). The defensive production just isn’t there, which is a concern as Alabama quickly approaches a three-game stretch that starts on Dec. 9 and will include No. 1 Purdue, No. 15 Creighton and No. 2 Arizona.
Veteran guard Mark Sears once again led the Crimson Tide in scoring with 23 points. It was his fourth 20-point game of the season so far with his lowest scoring output being the 13 points he put up against Morehead State back in the season opener. That offensive production is great, but Sears lacking length shows up on the other end. Nelson scored 14 points to go with the team-leading eight rebounds and two blocks. Hofstra transfer Aaron Estrada‘s 16 points makes him the third and final UA player to score in the double digits.
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Not only did the team drop another game, but the Tuesday night crowd in Coleman Coliseum didn’t impress Jay Williams either, apparently.
“What’s the point of playing at home if it’s not gonna have a home court advantage? Like, this doesn’t feel like a home-court advantage at all for Alabama,” Williams said during the broadcast. “The place is not packed, the fans don’t seem to be engaged. It seems to be more like a tennis match.”
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Before Alabama hits that three-game stretch of top-15 opponents, it’ll welcome former assistant Bryan Hodgson and Arkansas State to Coleman next Monday night on Dec. 4. The Red Wolves are off to a rough 2-5 start with Little Rock set for Friday though. Tipoff for Alabama-Arkansas State will be at 7 p.m. CT, and the game will air on the SEC Network. Hopefully, Nate Oats and company can get some things figured out defensively between now and then.
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