Saturday afternoon in Knoxville will be big for the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Tennessee Vols. Rick Barnes' team goes into the game with three advantages. One will be a rabid home crowd. Another is if Tennessee needed any added motivation, Missouri provided it on Tuesday night, beating the Vols 73-69. A third advantage is that the Tennessee players know they can beat Alabama. They did it by a 79-73 score in January in Tuscaloosa.
Tennessee freshman Nate Ament was too much for the Crimson Tide in Tuscaloosa. He scored 29 points on 50% field goal shooting and 7-for-9 at the line. Ament added seven rebounds and three assists in 38 minutes of play. Nate Oats had no one who could guard Ament.
In January, to no one's surprise, the Vols were tremendous defensively. Alabama shot 43.1% for the game, including a woeful 23.1% on 6-for-26 three-point shooting. The most points a Nate Oats team has ever scored against the Vols is 76 points, and that came in a Crimson Tide loss. Rick Barnes, knowing how to defend Alabama, is the main reason Tennessee has won five straight against the Crimson Tide. In the last 10 games between the old rivals, Tennessee has won seven.
For Alabama something must change on Saturday
The Vols have other scores than Nate Ament. Ja'kobi Gillespie leads Tennessee in scoring at 18.1 points per game. Gillespie, teammates JP Estrella, Amari Abram, and Ethan Burg are good three-point shooters. In the second half of the season, Ament has been too good for many teams. He matched his 29 points against Alabama with 29 against Kentucky in Lexington and against Oklahoma. He scored 28 against Ole Miss and 22 points in games against Auburn and LSU.
Alabama can't allow Ament to go off again on Saturday. The good news is that he has not been sensational in his last two games. He scored 13 points in Tennessee's win over Vanderbilt in Nashville. In the loss to Missouri, Ament was held to 17 points. If Alabama can have similar success against Ament, the Crimson Tide can win in Knoxville.
Note: Player and game data provided by Sports Reference and utsports.com