re: Alabama Basketball Megathread | 26-7 (16-2)

from espn.com this morning:

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there are three matchups of ranked teams scheduled for Saturday -- No. 10 Alabama at No. 18 Missouri, No. 23 Kansas at No. 17 West Virginia and No. 19 Wisconsin at No. 12 Illinois. Which of these contests do you consider most meaningful, and why?

Borzello: I'll go with Alabama at Missouri (12 p.m. ET, ESPN), mostly because I have questions about both teams, and I want some answers! The Crimson Tide were the talk of college basketball a couple of weeks ago, running off a 10-game winning streak before losing to Oklahoma last weekend. But the vaunted offense that was carving up opponents has slowed down. The Tide are 22-for-72 (30.6%) from 3 the past three games and they've scored fewer than one point per possession in each of those games.

I don't generally buy into the "live by the 3, die by the 3" mantra, because teams are always going to struggle when their biggest strength gets taken away -- regardless of what it is -- but it remains to be seen if Alabama can beat a good team without making 40% or so of its outside shots. And Missouri is very good at taking away the outside shot; no opponent has made more than nine 3s in a game against the Tigers, and only five have shot above 40%.


Missouri has been a weird one for me all season. The Tigers' résumé is very good, but I'm just not sure they match that in terms of quality on the court. Cuonzo Martin has done a tremendous job this season, but they were a woeful shooting team before the past couple of games, and some of their big wins (at Arkansas, at Tennessee) look slightly less impressive now. But a home win over Alabama would eliminate some of my concerns.


Lunardi: Alabama has made its first all-time appearance as a No. 1 seed in Bracketology and would distance itself a bit with a win at Missouri. Can you imagine winning the national championship in Division I football and basketball in the same year? Rece Davis might never come back to earth. But that is the most impactful game for me, and I expect the Crimson Tide to prevail and remain undefeated in the SEC.

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I don't generally buy into the "live by the 3, die by the 3" mantra, because teams are always going to struggle when their biggest strength gets taken away -- regardless of what it is -- but it remains to be seen if Alabama can beat a good team without making 40% or so of its outside shots.

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I am pretty sick of seeing this same poorly reasoned take from so many talking heads. "Well I just can't say that Alabama is actually good unless they're able to play like shite and still beat a quality opponent on the road." How many teams can take their C- game on the road to a top 25 opponent and still walk away with a win? I don't even think Baylor or Gonzaga could.

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How is a 15-4 Ohio State team with no bad losses and 2 wins against Rutgers, 1 win at Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois ranked behind a 15-4 Alabama team who got blown out by Stanford and lost to WKU. Sure they beat Tennessee and Florida but who else have they beat?

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And Lunardi's answer:

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Fair question, and it’s close. I just think the Committee would put the 10-0 SEC team (presumed AQ) over the 9-4 Big Ten team (presumed at-large). Plus Alabama holds the CFP tiebreaker.

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Herb just played 16 minutes Tues and I don't remember him falling much so he should be a little better tomorrow.

anyone seen a spread yet?

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This Missouri game sets up a lot like the Oklahoma game. Early tip on the road against a pretty good, well balanced team that we should beat, but still need to play well to pull it out. Defense is going to keep it close regardless, but we will need to shoot better than we have for the last few weeks for this one to go our way.

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I'm going to predict that Petty finds his shot again, Quinerly as well, against Mizzou. Just a hunch, nothing more.

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A second consecutive year sans Portsmouth is a huge blow to the basketball scouting community and to seniors looking to kickstart their pro careers.

Despite the cancellation, I’ve teamed up with Sam Meyerkopf to mock a projected 64-prospect 2021 PIT invitee field.

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Each year, approximately ten high profile seniors decline PIT invitations.

Based on their consensus 2021 NBA Draft stock, the following seniors will not be included:

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Current ESPN BPI:

Alabama 55.9%
Missouri 44.1%

We moved up to 7 in NET.


Missouri dropped to 31.

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I don't generally buy into the "live by the 3, die by the 3" mantra, because teams are always going to struggle when their biggest strength gets taken away -- regardless of what it is -- but it remains to be seen if Alabama can beat a good team without making 40% or so of its outside shots.

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I'm kind of tired of hearing this from other fans and national media. It really just lets me know that they haven't watched Alabama play a game recently. We got a lot of buzz when we were knocking down shots all over the gym, so obviously that's who we are as a team? It's just lazy.

I work with a UNC fan who I've been able to have some fun with during a down year for them. He told me this week that he didn't like the way Alabama played because they didn't emphasize defense... Like, what? That's been the most consistent aspect of the team for the past 6 weeks.

I hope the offense starts lighting it up again, but part of me wouldn't hate it if we won a few more games with tough defense. Maybe they would take notice instead of the same old, "herp, derp, they shoot a lotta 3's".