Alabama Basketball: A special Crimson Tide not without concerns

It is possible to believe Alabama Basketball has something special going on and still have some concerns. Nate Oats was quick to say the Crimson Tide played poorly against Mississippi State.  Was the sub-par performance a blip or an indication of future repeat struggles?

Saturday’s road game against Oklahoma should provide some answers. Earlier in the week, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi had the Sooners as his first team out of the 68-team NCAA Tournament field. After that, TCU destroyed Oklahoma 79-52. Though their current NCAA NET ranking is six spots lower than Mississippi State at No. 65, the Sooners are probably as good as the Bulldogs. With the game in Norman. if Alabama plays as it did on Wednesday night, Oklahoma could prevail.

One reason Alabama basketball fans are expecting a strong bounce-back is roster depth. Jahvon Quinerly had a game-changing performance against the Bulldogs. Noah Pringle, Dom Welch and Rylan Griffen added a combined 13 points off the bench. Every point was key. Noah Gurley did not score but he came up with four rebounds, an assist and a block in 12 minutes of play. His effort. including tipping balls to teammates was superb.

Alabama Basketball Starters

Excluding Brandon Miller, other Tide starters have slipped in recent games. Maybe the most troubling is Charles Bediako. In five games since he performed well against Kentucky, the Tide’s big man has scored a total of 18 points. He hit the boards adequately during reduced minutes, but his defense has been inconsistent. State’s bigs were a bad matchup for the less physical Bediako, but his minutes remaining down, while Noah Pringle’s minutes go up, appears necessary.

Starters Mark Sears and Noah Clowney are in three-point shooting slumps. In the last four games, Sears is 4-of-24 outside the arc. Noah Clowney is 0-of-16. On the season, four Crimson Tide regulars are shooting less than 30% outside the arc. Clowney is at 25.8%. Noah Gurley (25.5%), Rylan Griffen (28.8%) and Dom Welch (15%) are major contributors to the Crimson Tide being No. 191, among Division One teams in three-point percentage. Statistically, take away Brandon Miller’s 45.1% and Mark Sears at 36.8% and three-point shooting is a liability for the Crimson Tide.

To an extent, volume shooting makes up for some of the three-point weakness, as does offensive rebounding with the Tide tied at No. 12 among the 363, D1 teams. Outstanding free throw shooting (19-for-22, 86.4%) saved the Tide against Mississippi State. On the season the Tide is No. 134 in D1 at 72.64% at the line. It should be added that without two threes by Dom Welch and one by Rylan Griffen, the Tide would have come up short against the Bulldogs. Sometimes the percentages do not matter.

Nerve-racking for Alabama basketball fans is the repeated difficulty on inbounds plays. The problem is not new and without improvement, the weakness could turn a close win into a loss.

It’s a long season

Twenty games in, there is still lots of basketball to be played. Nate Oats’ team could play in another 20 games, including an SEC and National Championship game. A midseason blip can be more helpful than hurtful. To be learned is how many adjustments Nate Oats makes, and if they will prove successful in getting the Crimson Tide to peak at tournament time.

Alabama is so good, many more games will be won. Unknown, is will the Crimson Tide be a very good team; or a truly great one?

Note: Data for this post came from RollTide.com and NCAA.com

Alabama plays at 1:00 PM on Saturday in the SEC vs. Big 12 Challenge.