Alabama Basketball Opponent Preview: Oklahoma Sooners

Alabama basketball will take a brief intermission from dominating the SEC to take a trip to Norman, Oklahoma this weekend. The Crimson Tide will play the Oklahoma Sooners on Saturday afternoon in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge.

The Sooners are 11-9 in their second season under head coach Porter Moser. They are just 2-6 in the Big 12, which is particularly brutal this season. OU is coming off of a 27-point loss at TCU, but has been competitive in many of its losses.

Oklahoma has nearly beaten several ranked teams in conference play, losing to Texas by one point, Iowa State by three, Kansas by four, and Baylor by two. However, both of their wins have also come in close games. They have beaten only Texas Tech and West Virginia, both of whom join Oklahoma at the bottom of the league standings.

Oklahoma dropped a 52-51 decision to Sam Houston State to open its season, but has otherwise avoided bad losses in non-conference play. The Sooners have already played three SEC teams, falling to Arkansas but beating Florida and Ole Miss. All three games were competitive and played on neutral floors. In another game against a common opponent with Alabama basketball, OU edged South Alabama by a score of 64-60.

Alabama Basketball: Oklahoma personnel

Oklahoma is led primarily by a quartet of seniors. Nevada transfer guard Grant Sherfield makes the Sooners go, and possesses elite abilities as a scorer and playmaker. He averages team-highs of 16.4 points and 3.3 assists per game, shooting 42 percent from the three-point line at a fairly high volume. Sherfield has eclipsed the 20-point mark eight times this season.

Former Eastern Washington transfers Tanner and Jacob Groves give Oklahoma a pair of skilled frontcourt scorers. Tanner Groves is more of a post player, averaging 10.1 points and 7.3 rebounds per game while shooting over 65 percent on two-point shots.

Jacob Groves thrives on the wing, where he knocks down 39 percent of his three-point shots and averages 8.4 points per game.

Jalen Hill joins the Groves brothers in the frontcourt. Hill is a combo forward who averages 9.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per contest. In Oklahoma’s last seven games, he has upped his averages to 13.7 points and 6.7 rebounds.

Freshman guard Milos Uzan accompanies the four seniors in the OU starting lineup, and contributes 6.2 points and 3.3 assists per game.

As it has in most games this season, Alabama basketball will have a huge size advantage and should dominate the glass. Oklahoma’s tallest rotation player is only 6’9”, and none of its frontcourt members have the length nor the athleticism to contend with a player like Noah Clowney, much less Charles Bediako and Nick Pringle.

To avoid the upset, Alabama will have to make shots at a higher rate than it did in its last outing. Clowney looks to break out of his perimeter shooting slump, and Brandon Miller and Mark Sears must return to making shots at a high clip.

Should the starters continue to struggle, reserves such as Jahvon Quinerly, Rylan Griffen, and Dom Welch can score in bunches off the bench. Alabama basketball has already reaped the benefits of having starting-caliber players on its bench.

Bama hopes to return to playing at an extremely high level on both ends of the floor, but the team has sputtered in its last couple games. If it continues to falter (relative to being a projected no. 1 seed), this could be a difficult game on the road. Still, even a loss would not impact Alabama’s unblemished SEC record.

If the Tide play anywhere near their potential, they should handle the upset-minded Sooners pretty easily.