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

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Yeah but no one says "I'm not sold on Baylor yet because I haven't seen them beat a good team when they're having a bunch of defensive breakdowns and commit 23 turnovers."

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To be fair to Baylor, they haven't had games like that. We have had games where we don't shoot 35-40% and we are clearly less effective in them. Close home games with average Mississippi State and Kentucky and a loss to Oklahoma.

The Baylor argument is akin to saying "Yea, well how good will Alabama's offense be if Mac Jones can't complete a pass and they can't block anybody".

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In short, I doubt Gonzaga and Baylor are QUITE as good as it may seem. They may still be the best two teams out there, but I ain't scared.

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I think they are both really, really good. A step above everyone else. I also think this is college basketball, and really, really good teams lose in the NCAA Tournament all the time.

If this was the NBA Playoffs and you had to beat a team 4 out of 7 then it'd be nearly impossible. But this ain't that.

Yea, if he comes back healthy then that's a pretty gigantic add for the tournament.

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Trying to repackage that as analysis is just lazy journalism IMO.

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I think a lot of basketball people miss mid-range and jump hooks, so they nit pick teams that run rim and three offense despite it clearly being the best way to play.

Having doubters in the media isn't a bad thing. Oats is a smart enough guy to turn that into fuel for motivating the players. Honestly, it's better than if the players were just constantly hearing that they are unbeatable. It forces them to know that they are really good and still maintain some of that underdog, us against everybody mindset and focus.

And I almost don't even blame the people that don't quite buy in yet. We have a great basketball team this year, but we are still Alabama basketball in their eyes and most of college basketball media is largely just a groupthink circle jerk. A guy like Seth Greenberg isn't going to pound his fist on the table and demand more respect for Alabama when they can just easily beat the same drums for Jay Wright and Villanova, Tony Bennett and Virginia or Luke Garza and Iowa, etc.

The real bottom line is we have one of the best teams in the country when we are fully healthy and we are going to have a chance to prove it to all believers and non believers. We just need to get healthy, stay healthy, stay hungry and stay focused - one game at a time. Continue playing terrorizing defense, tighten things up a little offensively and then let the chips fall where they may.

TLDR: frick the haters

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An updated look at the Haslametrics.com conference breakdown for Friday, February 5th, 2021. The image shows average conference ranking, as well as highest/lowest-ranked teams from each conference. Sorted by average conference ranking.

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The “basketball minds” sometimes have a hard time looking at analytics and and seeing it as anything other than a gimmick. It’s not even just limited to basketball either... football and baseball are the same way. They fail to recognize that it still takes good coaching and fundamentals to get players to perform well, and chalk it up to being a gimmicky scheme.

I don’t really care that some announcers or coaches don’t like or agree with Oats’s style of play, but I do wish they would report it accurately. When you really break it down, it’s not about taking a bunch of 3’s or forcing the ball to the rim. The essence of his scheme is efficiency. If the team can play as efficiently as possible on both sides of the court and keep the tempo that he wants, he can maximize the number of possessions and give his more efficient team an advantage in the game, which makes complete sense from an analytical or coaching perspective.

When someone says Alabama “lives and dies by the 3”, it’s really an oversimplification that doesn’t give enough credit to the players or staff.

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When someone says Alabama “lives and dies by the 3”, it’s really an oversimplification that doesn’t give enough credit to the players or staff.

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The one that pissed me off the most is when they were calling us the Houston Rockets prior to the Harden trade. That one really bothered me.

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When someone says Alabama “lives and dies by the 3”, it’s really an oversimplification that doesn’t give enough credit to the players or staff.

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It’s not like we take a lot of bad 3s. Some people can’t grasp that a semi contested three 2 feet behind the arc is a better shot than a long 2 jumper

We almost lost to Kentucky because they defended the 3 super well. Cool. They also played fantastic D at the rim and hit tough shots. It’s kinda like when people say “Saban’s Kryptonite is Heisman caliber mobile QBs with great skill position players.”

That comment about Greenburg reminded me of the 92 Ala football Team and Gene Stallings. Cant remember who it was in the media-an ex coach, that kept calling us the worst 6&0, worst 7&0 team in the country. Stallings was asked about it and said, "well he ought to know what a bad football team looks like. That is the only kind of team he ever coached".