Alabama Basketball Has Re-Match With Auburn In Tuscaloosa
Alabama Basketball returns to Tuscaloosa Saturday night. After a rough loss at Arkansas on Wednesday and the disappointing loss at Auburn two weeks ago, the Tide needs a win.
For Alabama Basketball, the last two weeks have been Dickens-like. The “worst of times” certainly applies to the high double-digit points losses to Auburn and Arkansas. The SEC road is historically tough, though less so this season.
A team can accept a close loss on the road, but losses by 20 to the Tigers and 19 to the Razorbacks. Maybe not exactly the “worst of times,” but bad enough.
In between those two games were two good wins. It is a stretch to call those wins the “best of times,” but with a program, fighting to regain its basketball significance, any conference win not against Missouri or LSU is satisfying.
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Alabama has a redemption opportunity Saturday night in a sold-out Coleman Coliseum. Alabama has beaten Auburn for the past seven contests at Coleman Coliseum. To keep the streak alive, The Tide will have to play better than it did in Auburn and much better than it did Wednesday night in Fayetteville.
On the plains, the Auburn inside-outside game torched the Tide for 84 points. Pressure on-ball defense and points off turnovers, were enough for the Razorback win. Add the turnover points with torrid shooting outside the arc and Arkansas raced to 87 points.
Alabama does not have the offensive productivity to beat teams that score much more than70 points. Alabama has not won a game this season when the opponent scored more than 66 points.
Now that Austin Wiley has acclimated to college play, Auburn is a difficult team to defend. Wiley plays big and physical inside and he has a good shooting touch. Collapse too much on Wiley and Auburn has multiple capable outside shooters. Mustapha Heron is the best Auburn bomber and seventh best in the conference hitting 3’s at 42.7% rate.
The Tide must play tough defense with minimal fouls AND win the turnover and points off turnovers battle with the Tigers. It will be a tough game. Coleman needs to be loud and rowdy to help push the Tide to victory.
