For Alabama basketball fans who had thought otherwise, Wednesday showed that Vanderbilt is a 'for real' good basketball team. It is easy to blame Alabama's 96-90 loss on officiating. The teams combined for 88 free throws, with 50 of them taken by Vandy. Two players from each team fouled out.
The Crimson Tide was an injury-depleted team without the services of Aiden Sherrell. The result was that Alabama lacked rim protection, which Vandy took advantage of. Nate Oats used Keitenn Bristow and Noah Williamson when the Tide did not play small. In a total of 12 minutes of playing time, the Alabama duo committed nine fouls.
Making the injury situation worse was Labaron Philon not playing in the game's last 16 minutes. After the game, Nate Oats explained that Philon had suffered from full-body cramps, requiring an IV in the locker room, while Alabama struggled on the court. Philon had 15 first-half points and three points before his second-half exit. The problem has happened before to Alabama players. The Crimson Tide must quickly learn how to eliminate the malady. It probably cost Alabama the game against the Commodores.
Vanderbilt was so effective in three-point defense that the Crimson Tide's second-half three-point production was 18.2% (4 of 22). For the entire game, Alabama was not much better, at 22.5%. Combined, London Jemison and Taylor Bol Bowen attempted 11 three-pointers and made none.
For Alabama Basketball 'Ball didn't move'
After the game, Nate Oats may have been speaking about more players than Jemison and Bol Bowen when he said, "I thought we got a little selfish. We didn't move the ball. We had guys that had teammates open on a one-more (pass) and decided not to move it." Oats further explained that his team's production of only nine assists was the result of not enough ball movement.
When Alabama gets the ball movement and resulting distribution Nate Oats loves, its offense is arguably college basketball's best. When it doesn't, Alabama is a good but not great team. That was seen on Wednesday, and the result needs to be a learned lesson for the Crimson Tide.
Amari Allen had an outstanding game to lead Alabama in scoring with 25 points. He was a perfect 12-for-12 at the foul line. Allen was also Alabama's leading rebounder with 11 boards, and he made four of the Crimson Tide's total of nine assists.
Note: Game stats provided by Stat Broadcast