Alabama Basketball: Tide needs to stay on roll against Missouri

Alabama basketball needs to maintain momentum coming up the upset win over Auburn. Missouri should give the Tide an important win on Saturday afternoon.

A now 9-7 Alabama basketball team cannot afford to let any other wins slip away. Losses against Penn, Penn State and Florida could have all been wins. Beating the Auburn Tigers gave the Crimson Tide its first Quadrant 1 of the season. Nate Oats’ team must now build off that success.

The next three games offer three good chances to add to the season’s win total. Two are at home, sandwiched around a road trip to the historically unfriendly Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville. None of the games are locks even though the three teams; Missouri, Vanderbilt and Kansas State are a combined 24-24 on the season. Missouri at 9-7 has the best record of the trio.

The Crimson Tide should be favored in all three games. Odds should be on the side of the Tide in five of its next six contests. Four of the six are home games. Only one, a road game at LSU, is a major obstacle. Taking any of the opponents lightly could lead to missing another good opportunity for a win.

Nate Oats will preach taking care of business. Hopefully, the Alabama basketball team will not be distracted by Missouri’s woeful performance in its most recent game. The Tigers went to Starkville and were pretty much run out of the Hump. Mississippi State led by 20 points at halftime and won going away, 72-45.

Cuonzo’s Martin’s team had no answer for the inside game of Bulldog, Reggie Perry. Missouri shot only 37.4 percent for the game and hit only 5-of-25 threes. Add to those numbers 19 turnovers and the reviews from Kansas City media were not kind. The Tigers were described as,

"showed little life on offenselooked frazzled from the startThere was little rhythm …  looked uncomfortable all night"

Martin was disappointed in his team not having a “physical presence” against the Bulldogs. No doubt, he will push his Tigers to hit the Coleman court with fire and intensely defend the Crimson Tide.

Along with taking down a top team, the way the victory over Auburn was accomplished is encouraging. John Petty did little scoring and was uncharacteristically cold from outside the arc. He took only nine shots and made only one of five, three-point attempts. The good news is his scoring was not needed. The other evident bright spot was the maturation of Kira Lewis Jr. Auburn literally kept falling down trying to guard him.

The Missouri game is 2:30 PM, CST, Saturday afternoon. For those unable to attend, it will be televised by the SEC Network.