In perhaps the biggest regular season game in SEC basketball history, Alabama is going to have its hands full on Saturday afternoon in Coleman Coliseum against No. 1 Auburn. The Tigers have been the best team in the country so far this season, playing at a level Alabama has hoped to get to.
The matchup against Auburn isn't a season-definer, but it's a great litmus test for the Tide to see how close they are to being a true and legitimate contender for a national championship. If Alabama can beat Auburn, they can beat anyone.
In any matchup between two elite teams, there's bound to be an X-Factor or two who steps up and has a good game seemingly out of nowhere. Alabama got a career-night from Jarin Stevenson in Tuesday's road win over Texas, but they also got plus-shooting from unlikely sources: Mo Dioubate and Labaron Philon combined to hit 6-of-8 attempts from three.
A duplicate shooting performance against Auburn would be nice, albeit unlikely. Nate Oats and company won't be able to rely on shooting 60% from three-point range against the Tigers.
Alabama's offense is predicated on paint-touches. The Tide attacks the rim relentlessly and then kicks out to shooters for three pointers. Against Auburn, that will be challenging as Auburn protects the rim as good as anyone with the country.
Bruce Pearl effectively starts two centers in Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell. Auburn is third in the country in block-rate. With Broome and Cardwell, they don't have to send help from perimeter defenders, which means it is tougher to get shooters open.
The way to combat that will be to play five-out offensively. That would mean Cliff Omoruyi sits on the bench, however. Omoruyi spends a lot of his time on offense out of the paint as a screener at the top. It's a creative way to pull the opposing big out of the paint. Auburn is smart enough to sag off of Omoruyi because he's no threat to shoot.
I worry about Alabama holding up defensively if they choose to go small and play Grant Nelson at the five and then one of Jarin Stevenson or Mo Dioubate at the four for extended minutes. I'm sure it'll happen, but it'll be tough to combat Broome and keep the Tigers off the offensive glass with that lineup.
It's why I'm intrigued by freshman big man Aiden Sherrell in this game. Sherrell has developed quite nicely as a freshman big, getting better as the season has progressed. He's starting to get a few more minutes as well. In the first eight SEC games, he only played double-digit minutes in two games. He's played double-digit minutes in two of the last three games and scored a season-high 12 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in Alabama's win over Georgia two weeks ago.
Sherrell has the ability to do a lot of the same things Omoruyi does defensively. He's bigger than Cliff and has done a pretty good job of defending without fouling as a freshman, averaging just slightly over five fouls per 40 minutes. He doesn't have the shot-blocking prowess of Omoruyi, but he can impact shots with his length.
The big plus in Sherrell's direction is his ability to stretch the floor. His raw numbers might not strike fear into an opponent: he's just 6-of-27 (22.2%) from three on the season.
But Oats has a lot of confidence in Sherrell as a shooter, stating that he's a 40% shooter in practice and they want him taking shots as if he's a 40% shooter. He hit 2-of-3 attempts against Georgia and if Auburn doesn't respect his ability to line it up and fire away, he could burn them from distance if Broome/Cardwell sag off of him to cheat to the paint.
In limited minutes, Sherrell has been a monster on the offensive glass, too. He carries an offensive rebound rate of 15.8%, a mark that puts him inside the Top 20 nationally. He leads the team in that category, slightly ahead of Dioubate.
If Alabama can get good minutes out of its freshman big man, and he can respond with some offensive rebounds and maybe a pair of three-pointers, then he could very well be the X-Factor for the Crimson Tide against the Tigers.