re: Definitely Not The Alabama Basketball Exhibition Games Megathread

Someone has got to protect the rim.

LINK

Hard hat winner.

Our backcourt is going to be sooo good. Philon looks like he's at a completely different level. Looks like an effortless 20 PPG kind of guy and a top 10 pick. His handle at multiple points in this game was incredible (even when compared to NBA guards). Might be the best ball-handler in college basketball. Hannah may close a lot of games for us with his POA defense. Not sure I buy his offense (though it definitely looked good enough last night). Amari Allen looked the part, just missed his shots. Seemed like he was unnecessarily off-balance and drifting on many of his 3PAs. Think it's just nerves.

Bol Bowen and Bristow were the standouts in the frontcourt. Bol Bowen actually impressed me more on offense than defense (which was a surprise). Had a few lapses defensively. Bristow looked fantastic defensively. Slid his feet very well for his size, took great angles, and contested well. Offensively, nothing flashy but he finished plays well, which is what we need with our guard play. Sherrell has to do more for us offensively if he's not going to be a traditional rim protecting big.

Sherrell has gotta be better. He is the key to the whole season IMO and he was so disappointing.

I was expecting a Bediako like year 2 jump from him and through 1 game he is far from it

Bama just played their first game with what amounts to an almost entirely new roster. And they were missing Wrightsell and Bethea, who will be 2 of their better players. They have a very, very deep pool of guards.

Their achilles heel all year is going to be the frontcourt. This is the first year I can remember without real rim production. That is going to limit their ceiling.

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I was expecting a Bediako like year 2 jump from him and through 1 game he is far from it

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Sherrell is a sufficient defender if you plant him like a tree in the paint and tell him to guard the post, focus on rebounds and give a little help defense on drives.

The second you get him pulled out to the perimeter, the wheels fall off. He can't recover, his rebounding disappears because he is overcompensating trying to recover and it's just a shite show. I think it's silly to scheme our defense for him to switch off into picking up a guard or for that matter to even bother following their big out to the perimeter. Plant him down low when he is in the game, he is 7 foot tall and has the wheels of George Muresan. Cater to his strengths.

One other thing I do wish we would do is get our big guys a touch or two early in games. Get them involved and confident even if it's one or two early touches. I always thought Cliff and Chuck were at their very best if they could get going a little offensively it seemed to translate into a more confident game for them.