In SEC play, Alabama basketball is a perfect 6-0 on the road and a disappointing 4-2 at home. The Crimson Tide has had some of its best efforts in road games, knocking off the likes of Texas A&M, Kentucky, Mississippi State, and Texas on the road.
Losing to Auburn on Saturday, even at home, is far from a bad loss. But Alabama also dropped a home game to Ole Miss in conference play. They also played a closer-than-expected game at home against LSU. The Crimson Tide was tied at halftime with the Tigers and won by seven points against the SEC bottom-feeder.
In SEC play, the data points for Alabama's splits at home and away from home are startling. The Crimson Tide has played like the best team in the country in road games. At home, they've played like a middle of the pack SEC team.
Home: 120.6 ORTG (7th), 53.5 eFG%, 31.9 ORB%, 30.8 3P%, 47.8 AST%
Away: 129.0 ORTG (1st), 59.8 eFG%, 41.4 ORB%, 42.0 3P%, 57.6 AST%
Stats courtesy of BartTorvik.
In road games, Alabama's offense has been overwhelming. In last Tuesday's rout of Texas, we saw it on full display. Alabama knocked down 17-of-29 three-point attempts on its way to a 23-point road win in Austin. Four days later in Tuscaloosa against Auburn, the Tide shot 5-of-26 from three in the loss to the rival Tigers.
Those two games are just examples of what has been a trend in SEC play. Alabama shoots 11 percentage points better from three on the road than they do at home. A 42% three-point percentage on the road is obscene. That's made better by the fact that Alabama is rebounding an absurd 41.4% of its own misses on the road, meaning when they do rarely miss a shot, they're probably getting the rebound anyway.
What has been the difference for Alabama on the road vs. at home?
The difference in offensive rebounding percentage in home and away games stands out to me just as much as the three-point percentage does. That tells me that Alabama is more prone to relax at home. They believe that they're good enough to win against anyone at home and they don't match the effort they play with in road games.
Road games are notoriously difficult in college basketball. It's obvious that Nate Oats has drilled that into his team and they've responded by giving tremendous effort and focus in those games. That's probably a good sign for Alabama's ability to play well in the SEC and NCAA Tournaments.
But if they were as dialed in and focused in home games as they have been on the road, there's a nonzero chance they'd be 12-0 in SEC play right now with a two-game cushion in the standings.
The team home/away splits are wild, but some of the individual shooting splits in home/away games are even more startling:
Mark Sears:
Home: 35.2% from 3
Away: 38.7% from 3
Aden Holloway:
Home: 40.0% from 3
Away: 46.7% from 3
Chris Youngblood:
Home: 26.0% from 3
Away: 51.4% from 3
Labaron Philon:
Home: 17.1% from 3
Away: 42.4% from 3
Jarin Stevenson:
Home: 20.1% from 3
Away: 30.8% from 3
All of those players have shot better in road games, but the massive disparity for Philon and Youngblood is pretty wild to see written out.
Grant Nelson is the only player who shoots demonstrably better at home vs. on the road. He's hit 34.8% of his three point attempts in Coleman this year and just 17.2% of them in true road games.
Sears hasn't shot the way he's capable of in home or away games, though he too has been better in road games. But his performance in Alabama's four losses shows his importance and demonstrates how much more the Crimson Tide needs from him to reach its ceiling.
In Alabama's four losses, Sears has shot 14/54 (25.9%) from the field and 5-of-32 (15.6%) from three. When your best player shoots the ball that poorly, it's going to be hard to win games.
The good news for Alabama is that its next game is on the road, which should lead to an uptick in its overall effort and its ability to knock down shots if the 12-game sample size in league play has shown enough.
Alabama has had a tendency to bounce back well from its losses. Following the road loss to Purdue in November, Alabama scored 100 points and beat a good Illinois team by 13 in Birmingham. After losing to Oregon in Las Vegas, Alabama blew out North Carolina on the road. Coming off the home loss to Ole Miss, Alabama went to Lexington and knocked off Kentucky.
Losing to your rival carries a bit more weight and disappointment, but this season has shown us that this team has a maturity level to shake off of a loss and put together a complete performance in the aftermath.