Alabama Basketball has been one of the nation’s better three-point shooting teams all season. The Crimson Tide currently ranks sixth nationally in three-pointers attempted, and tenth in made triples. Alabama employs a unique style, and is the only high major team in the top-15 in the country in three-point attempts.
Nate Oats brought this approach along with him from his days at Buffalo in the Mid-American Conference, and it has been a success in the SEC as well. While Alabama struggled to shoot the ball last season, Coach Oats has it right back on track in 2022-23.
Alabama Basketball has ridden Oats’ trigger-happy style to a 23-4 record and a 13-1 record in the SEC, and seems poised to secure a no. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.
What makes this Bama team so effective is that it is a complete team, and does not overly rely on the three-ball. It also boasts a strong inside presence with bigs like Charles Bediako, Noah Clowney, and Nick Pringle, and its guards and wings can slash as well. Alabama also plays solid defense and leads the country in rebounding.
Collectively, all of this means that when the Crimson Tide does get hot from the outside, it is nearly unbeatable. Bama leads the SEC with 284 made threes (10.5 per game), and has the ceiling to hit at a much higher clip.
The Tide has hit double-digit threes in 13 of its games, and is 13-0 in such games. Alabama has also hit over 15 threes on six different occasions, including a 42-point win over Jacksonville State, a 2-point win over North Carolina, a 40-point win over LSU, a 57-point win over Vanderbilt, a 28-point win over Florida, and a 49-point win over Georgia.
This means that in conference games in which it has hit 15 or more three-pointers, Alabama basketball has beaten four SEC opponents by an absurd average of 43.5 points per game.
The good news for the Crimson Tide is that it has hit that mark in three of its last six games, and also hit 13 threes in a win over LSU in that stretch. Despite lulls against Auburn and Tennessee, Alabama appears to be in the midst of one of its hottest tears of the season.
The three-point shot is a potent weapon for Alabama basketball, which utilizes the trifecta more often and more effectively than any other national championship contender. If the Tide can continue its recent trend, then it will be peaking at the right moment: just in time for March.