Alabama Basketball: A fan’s take, ‘Unbuckled and Unapologetic’

Alabama basketball dropped to 9-6 on the season after losing to Georgia in Athens by a score of 65-46. The game was not as close as the score indicates.

Fellow Alabama basketball fans, while I would love to be persuaded otherwise, this fan is ‘Unbuckled and Unapologetic.’ For readers of this post, I assume you did not watch the game. I can’t imagine anyone who saw it would wish to revisit it.

At 19:32 of the first half, Georgia’s Yante Maten hit a three to put the Bulldogs up 3-0. The game was over at that point. Collin Sexton followed with a jumper to make it 3-2 but the Tide never led in the game. Just before halftime, Avery Johnson Jr. made a three, cutting the Georgia lead to 20 points.

Collin Sexton played hard and well but it was not enough

Collin Sexton scored exactly half of the Tide’s 46 points. Avery Jr. matched three of the Tide starters in points. He had eight points. John Petty, Braxton Key and Herbert Jones combined scored eight points. Key was 0-7, Petty was 1-8 and Jones was 2-7. Donta Hall scored seven points and made six rebounds.

As poorly as the Tide played offensively, the defense was worse. Georgia is 13th in the SEC shooting threes. In the first half, the Bulldogs made eight, generally without a Tide hand in their face. Hall, the Tide’s most veteran defender twice surrendered the baseline on Georgia drives. Both times the Bulldogs scored easily.

Then there was the rebounding. Georgia dominated the glass 49-31. Alabama basketball only made 12 turnovers but it also only earned seven assists. The Alabama basketball offense did not run through Collin Sexton. It was Collin Sexton. Other than setting screens, his teammates mostly stood around and watched in half-court sets.

What little defensive energy was exercised came during full court press sequences. How bad was the Crimson Tide performance? At 6:14 of the second half, Georgia had missed 13 of their last 14 field goal tries. They led by 22 points.

Bright spots for the Tide

In an effort to be hopeful, we can report.

• Collin Sexton is so good, running the offense through him makes sense. Other players getting out of his way is logical. It just is not a recipe for winning many games.
• Braxton Key fought hard throughout the game. His hard work did not yield much but that level of effort will hopefully pay off soon.

What next for the Tide?

Literally what is next is a game against South Carolina, Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa. South Carolina will not play like the Alabama basketball team did Saturday in Athens. If they do, Frank Martin will bench them until he finds players willing to play defense with energy and effort. If that were to mean playing with fewer than five on the court, we suspect Martin would do it to get his team’s attention. We wish Avery had some Frank Martin in his coaching style.

Alabama basketball fans should still support this young team. But this team, the coaches and fans should stop talking about the NCAA tournament. The focus needs to be on winning a game, then some more. It is still possible for this team to claw its way back to NCAA tournament contention. If they do, perhaps it will be time to ‘buckle up’ again.

Next: Highlights of Tide-Georgia Football History

The young Alabama basketball team has four home games before returning to the SEC road. After a trip to Oxford, the Tide will return to Tuscaloosa to face Oklahoma. The Sooners also have a freshman phenom in point guard Trae Young.