Alabama basketball suffered its first loss of the 2024-2025 season on Friday night at Mackey Arena against Purdue, falling 87-79. The game against the Boilermakers, even in a defeat, is the reason Nate Oats schedules such tough out-of-conference opponents. He wants his team to get exposed as early as they can get exposed so they can make adjustments and be battle-tested and ready for SEC play.
It's why Alabama has won two SEC regular season and two SEC tournament championships over the last four seasons, and why the Crimson Tide made a run to the Final Four last season.
Alabama was exposed against Purdue on Friday night. The Boilermakers exposed a big flaw, one that could ultimately be fatal in the Tide's hopes for a return trip to the Final Four and potentially the program's first national championship.
Alabama's loss to Purdue can be summed up pretty easily. In the 18 minutes that Rutgers transfer center Clifford Omoruyi was off the floor, the Crimson Tide was thoroughly outclassed by Purdue. Omoruyi was the only Tide player in the positive in +/- at +11. That means in the 18 minutes Omoruyi was on the bench, Alabama was outscored by 19 points.
The hope was that freshman center Aiden Sherrell would be able to give Oats 10+ minutes per night as the backup five, limiting the time that Grant Nelson has to play center. And maybe Sherrell will be able to do that as the season goes on, but against Purdue, the freshman looked lost in his first game action against a power conference opponent. He played just two minutes, was whistled for two fouls, and the Tide was -5 in those two minutes he was on the floor.
Nelson was thrust into action at the 5 with Omoruyi in foul trouble and Sherrell ineffective. And Nelson could do little against Purdue's Trey Kaufman-Renn, who finished with a game-high 26 points and 8 rebounds.
Not every team on Alabama's schedule will have a player of Kaufman-Renn's caliber who can take advantage of the non-Omoruyi minutes. But some of Alabama's biggest potential competition down the line sure does. Like Kansas, the team who edged out Alabama for the No. 1 ranking in the preseason. And just across the state, Auburn's Johni Broome awaits.
Even with Alabama's disadvantage in the paint with Omoruyi on the bench, the Tide still would have had a chance to pull out the road win in West Lafayette if Mark Sears played like Mark Sears. The preseason National Player of the Year was just 5-of-15 from the field and 1-of-6 from the three-point line.
Sears will get going, and the return of USF transfer Chris Youngblood from injury will give Alabama a boost in the backcourt and allow them to play the starting lineup most expected in the preseason. Both of those things will be a big boost for the Tide.
But if Alabama wants to reach its ultimate goal, then improvement will be needed from the freshman Sherrell, or maybe more minutes will need to be distributed to sophomore Mo Dioubate as the small-ball five.
We'll see what adjustments, if any, are made come Wednesday when Alabama faces off against Illinois in Birmingham.