re: Tide Hoops | Please Anchor

Finally, just a refresher on last year......




And the year before that......




Perhaps we just have to realize this is how our seasons are going to go. Good streaks, bad streaks and just hope that the end of the year we're on a good streak

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Even if we sucked every year I would be able to handle it better than getting my hopes up every year just to get sh*t on by January more years than not.

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Eh, we kind of killed that last year. We had an ugly stretch in late January/early February that got us all chicken littling again, but then we turned it around and played great ball the last 4 weeks of the season.

Before I expected us to crumble late. Now I just know that we are going to be up and down, and just hope that the ups line up well for the postseason.

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I feel like the "down" has been really long this year.

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About 7 games, which is pretty much the same as the 2 bad stretches last year.

If we play well Saturday (big if), that will be 3 of the last 4 games where we've played average to above average (with the 4th being Missouri which, obviously, was an absolute epic disaster).

But yea, it definitely needs to start/continue the turn around on Saturday. A piss poor effort Saturday will be a very bad sign.

- Louisiana Tech beats Southern Miss, moves to 11-3 (5-0)

- Oakland beats Cleveland State, moves to 11-4 (6-0)

- South Dakota State beats Omaha, moves to 12-4, (5-0)

- South Alabama beats Georgia State, 7-5 (1-2)

- Gonzaga (12-2, 1-0) leads BYU by 13 near halftime

ESPN Bracketology - 1/14/22

#1 - Auburn
#2 - LSU
#4 - Kentucky
#5 - Alabama
#5 - Tennessee
#11 - Florida (last 4 byes)
#11 - Mississippi State (last 4 byes)

First Four Out
#4 Texas A&M



OOC Opponents
#1 - Gonzaga (W)
#4 - Houston (W)
#9 - Miami (W)
#10 - Davidson (L)
#12 - Iona (L)
#12 - Louisiana Tech (W)
#13 - Oakland (W)
#13 - South Dakota State (W)


First Four Out
#1 - Memphis (L)

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#5 - Alabama

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#12 - Iona (L)

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Would the committee be so sinister?

These next 4 games are going to tell the story on this bunch.

The SEC Schedule did is no favors when timing our skid. There are 4 SEC teams in the Top 5 of the NET.

First 10 (5/10 against Top 4):
Tennessee
@ Florida
@ Missouri
Auburn
@ Miss State
LSU
Missouri
@ UGA
@ Auburn
Kentucky

Last 8 (2/8 against Top 4)
@ Ole Miss
Arkansas
Miss State
@ Kentucky
@ Vandy
South Carolina
A&M
@ LSU

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Nate Oats provides updates on injured players, Alabama football DBs

The Alabama men’s basketball team could soon welcome an injured player back to the court.

Senior forward James Rojas, who suffered a torn ACL this summer, has been able to practice in some portions of the Crimson Tide’s on-court work and is “getting closer” to returning to game action, head coach Nate Oats told reporters Friday. It doesn’t sound like he will play Saturday at Mississippi State but perhaps the next contest at LSU on Wednesday, Jan. 19.

“Rojas is getting closer,” Oats said. “He’s been able to do some live stuff in the half court in practice. I talked to the trainer after practice today, Clarke (Holter) said we’ll dress him out. Maybe looking possibly at LSU next week, but he’s going through warmups and everything right now as if he’s gonna play. But it should be within a week with Rojas.

“I thought he looked pretty good today in practice. We’ll try to get him, probably in the next stage, getting him doing everything live in practice – full court, up and down. But he looked good in the half court. He guarded. He brings some toughness. He passed the ball well. For the half court, he looked good.”

Rojas was one of two Alabama players that sustained knee injuries prior to the 2021-22 season, along with Texas Tech transfer guard Nimari Burnett. While Burnett will not play this year, he did share an encouraging update this week via a video of him shooting 3-pointers.

“Clarke says he’s ahead of schedule. He’s doing unbelievable,” Oats said. “He’s a kid that works really hard, takes his game very seriously. He’s very professional about everything. He’s coming along really well. I don’t know the video you’re referring to. I took all social media off my phone, so I don’t really see much during the season. … But my guess would be he’s making them because he makes shots.

“Before he got injured, I think he was in 10 or 11 skill workouts … and he was shooting 60 percent from three in live action with live defense against guys competing to play for minutes.

“It would be great to have him this year. We could have certainly used his shooting. We’ve struggled to shoot the ball at various times this year, and he’s one of the best shooters we have on the team. I anticipate him being one of the best shooters we have next year and one of the better shooters in the country, to be honest with you. He’s got a pretty high IQ and he’s really locked into what the team’s doing this year even though he’s out.

“He’s been a great teammate. He makes comments in video, talks to the guys when they’re out of the game. I think he’s showing some leadership qualities. So we’re excited he’s in the program, wish he could have played this year. It’s unfortunate that he can’t. But his rehab’s coming along fine. I think he’ll be at 100 percent by the time the season starts next year.”

In non-injury news, Oats was asked for an update on Crimson Tide defensive backs Kool-Aid McKinstry and Terrion Arnold, who both expressed interest in playing football and basketball at the collegiate level. Now that football season is over, will they be joining the hoops team?

“We have not seen Terrion or Kool-Aid,” Oats said. “Obviously, it’s a long football season and their bodies need a little time to recover. I did talk to Coach (Bryan) Hodgson about it. I think they’ve reached out to him. But I don’t have an anticipated start time or if the plan is for them to still come in or not. Like I’ve said before, it’s really hard here just with football going so late. It just seems like they’re playing to the middle of January every year here, and by that time, we’ve played over half our schedule at this point.

“I’d love to get some toughness, some defense. Our defense has been an issue. Since both those guys are big-time athletes, they can probably guard a little bit, but we’re not anticipating them at any point here real soon.”

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I'm rooting for him to a Senior Chuck Davis type of season.