It took some buy-in from Jarin Stevenson to make it work, but Nate Oats' decision to finally start a 3-guard lineup and play 3-guard lineups for as many minutes as he can has unleashed a ruthlessly efficient Alabama basketball offense that completely overwhelmed a good Mississippi State team in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday night.
The Crimson Tide hit 22 three-pointers en route to a 111-73 beatdown of the Bulldogs. It was the third straight game that Alabama has scored at least 96 points. All three of those games Oats has started a 3-guard lineup.
Stevenson had to move to the bench to make this work after starting all season at the three. His defensive versatility and ability to stretch the floor allowed him to play down a position and gave the Crimson Tide a big frontcourt with him joining Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi.
But Alabama needed to get more ball-handling and creation on the court. With their usual starting lineup of those three bigs along with Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood, Sears was the only creator on the court. That made it difficult for Sears to find looks for himself, and allowed defenses to key in on Youngblood, who is a sniper from deep.
Inputting Labaron Philon into the starting five - and playing as many minutes as possible with three of the four guards (Sears, Aden Holloway, Philon, and Youngblood) on the court - makes Alabama extremely difficult to guard.
Sears playing next to Philon or Holloway allows him to get more minutes playing off-ball, which in turn gets him more chances as a catch-and-shooter. Since Philon re-joined the starting five, Sears is averaging 28.7 points per game and shooting 13-of-31 (41.9%) from three.
Sears has been more efficient as a result and has looked like the preseason National Player of the Year the last three games.
What Nate Oats had to say about Alabama's lineup changes
Oats talked at length about how the new lineup has helped Sears following Alabama's win over Kentucky. He took time to talk about how much it has helped both Chris Youngblood and Jarin Stevenson after the dominant win over Mississippi State.
On Youngblood:
“I think it’s really helped him being in there with two of those other three a lot more. Labaron can create. When you look, Labaron and Mark and Holloway, the three of those guys that kind of create, didn’t realize they had 20 assists combined between the three of them. So trying to keep two of those guys in and having to CY play with two of those guys a lot more, and having Mark play with at least one more of those other two, I think has significantly helped the offense, helped the ball move."
Youngblood was the main beneficiary of Alabama's ball movement. Alabama has 28 assists on 37 made baskets led by Sears' 10. Youngblood got a plethora of open catch-and-shoot opportunities and he torched Mississippi State for seven made three-pointers on his way to a team-leading 27 points in the win.
In two games against Mississippi State this season, Youngblood has hit 14-of-21 from three-point range and has scored 50 points.
Stevenson had to move to the bench to make the three-guard lineup work. It's never easy to get a guy to buy in to moving to the bench who has been starting all season long. Especially a guy like Stevenson who has had some confidence issues offensively, but does the right things when he is in the game and plays with a high motor.
But even coming off the bench the last three games, Stevenson has played more than his season average of minutes in all three games. Oats said this in regards to Stevenson after the game:
“Jarin went 3-of-3 tonight. Jarin needs catch-and-shoots. Jarin’s shooting a lot better with those guys in. We went through the numbers and looked at him when we decided to put Labaron in for him. We showed him how much better he is with two of those three creators in, and it’s helped his game. We told him he’d get at least as many minutes, and he has. Ever since we took him out of the starting lineup, he’s played more minutes than he was averaging before, and his minutes have been more efficient, which is what really matters."
Following a 3-of-3 night from three last night, Stevenson has now shot 39.3% from three-point range since his brutal 0-of-18 start to the season. In SEC play alone, he's shot 16-of-39 (41%) from three. His ability to stretch the floor is crucial for this offense and he can be a matchup challenge as a stretch-four.
You could have forgiven Oats if he pulled the plug on the 3-guard starting lineup after just one game. Alabama had a disastrous defensive performance in Columbia, giving up 110 points in the loss to Missouri. But he stuck to his guns and was rewarded with elite offensive basketball the past two games and really good defense to boot.
After struggling the first 10 minutes on defense against Kentucky, the Tide played elite defense the final 30 minutes. In the first half against Mississippi State on Tuesday, Alabama played perhaps its best 20 minutes of defense of the season in shutting down State star guard Josh Hubbard and holding the Bulldogs to just 27 points.
If those lineups continue to defend with the same level of intensity along with this kind of efficiency on offense, this Alabama team can absolutely win it all. When the Crimson Tide is at its peak, I'm not sure there's anyone better in the country.