re: 2017-18 Alabama Basketball Season Thread: 20-16 (10-11)

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He was dragged out of the lane pretty consistently today

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Yea, he had to play defense again Paschall and Spellmen. I THINK I would have kept him in the lane and let them beat you via 3 but even then they finished 2 for 8.

Lol thats the scary part.

Hes got to be able to realize what he has and scheme around it.You know ,dont run a pro offense with a option qb type thing.Our game shouldve been in transition not setting up guys that shoot 20% from 3

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Reese and AJ JR should be at least ok (with Reese having a potentially high ceiling)

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Reese was around 30-35% for the season, which isn't bad for a true freshman.

Maybe since Nova was shooting so well from 3's they didn't try that much, but it seemed to me they had trouble getting it inside this afternoon.
So, if they go against a taller team and they aren't shooting 75%, they could see some trouble.
Their defense was stout though.

If you really think about it. Petty, Jones, and Reese were all considered guys who can stroke it in HS. If those 3 progress with their stroke as many HS shooters do as they transition to their sophomore year and we add in 3 potentially good shooters in Mack, Norris and Davis, we could be very deadly behind the arc next year. I'll believe it when I see it (because it's hard to remember a time when we could say that), but the potential is certainly there.

All I can say is thank you Collin Sexton. He came into an almost dead program and helped bring them back to life. Now he’ll go on to the NBA and have many successful years. His time at Alabama went pretty much as expected.....fun, trash-talking kid who took us to the NCAA tourney and won a game. Roll Tide, Collin!

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Our game shouldve been in transition not setting up guys that shoot 20% from 3

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That was our gameplan, but you can't run everytime down the floor for easy layups. Any team who has decent transition defense will stop that most of the time. In order to be successful on offense you have to be able to hit open threes at a respectable percentage. As I've mentioned before, I can't remember a team we've had with more open looks behind the arc. If we can't hit those, then all the defense has to do is clog the lanes. We looked like a completely different team in games where we could hit the 3-ball. You can't avoid taking 3s in today's game. You aren't going to win most games against good teams that way.

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Yep, and it will be a year that shows if guys progress or not.

Huge year, exciting with all the returners, but I honestly don't know what to expect.

Hope for the best

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I'm really optimistic. I think CAJ and staff have been really underappreciated for the way they've developed players in their tenure here.

Donta Hall is the most recent example. He's gone from a guy that you weren't positive could walk and chew gum to a serious inside force with NBA potential.

Before Hall, it was Retin Obasohan. There was also very noticeable improvement from guys who spent more than a year in the program like Jimmy Taylor and Riley Norris. You just didn't see that under Anthony Grant.

I'm VERY confident in that part of his approach to coaching. We've also seen that he can recruit. If he can continue to adapt to the college game and managing college players, then the ceiling is very high.

But for the 5 game tank at the end of the season, this was a good year and exactly where we could have legitimately have hoped to be at this point. I'm content and excited.

Im happy with everyone this year except for Ingram and Key, everyone else improved and they stayed the same.

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I hope Norris comes back but I'd think Davis is moving on to a small school closer to Washington.

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Yeah I'd think so too with Wood coming in. You have to think that the staff is very surprised by Petty's play on the road. According to every inside information we've heard, we added Wood strictly because they thought Petty would be gone after this year. That plus the preseason hype and his performance in 2 of his last 3 games has me very excited to see if he can shoot lights out consistently. There were points this year, where he looked like the best collegiate three point shooter I have EVER seen. We just have to hope the consistency comes with another year under his belt.