Bama Game Thread: MBB - Bama vs Vols 2 - Sat Feb 28 - 5p CST ESPN

[BAMARICH]

Didn't get to watch yesterday until the last four minutes... finally got to watch this afternoon. This was a tale of two halves and it was the defense and bounce of the ball that made the difference. In the first half, three things happened on our defensive end. One was they constantly attacked every other inside player not named Sherrill, with Jemison being the most obvious. Two was their offensive rebounding - in particular HOW they rebounded. Whenever it was obvious a shot was going on, UT's guys crashed from the outside - and UA consistently failed to either face guard them (Dykes mentioned it once) or put any kind of body of them. If you have the game saved, go back and see how many times UT guys crashed the rim without any resistance at all from our guys - and notice which guys allowed it most often (spoiler alert - our guards). Three was the bounces of the ball. Whenever #2 happened, many times the rebound "found" those open crashers and they had easy putbacks.

Those three things changed in the second half. Jemison played sparingly (if at all) in the second half. And whoever was the "off" inside player from Sherrill, they did a much better job in putting a body on the UT player. Bol Bowen in particular did a fantastic job in doing that - you could tell it was a mission for him (he could be a defensive key for us going forward). Our guards improved on keeping UT's guys from crashing from outside - they did better at face guarding and putting a body on them. They didn't do a flawless job, but compared to the first half it was better. In the first three minutes of the second half, you could visibly see the different effort in our guards - it was emphasized at the half. Also, our inside guys did a better job of simply putting a body on a UT guy at all times. Then, the offensive rebounds simply didn't bounce UT's way as much in the second half. Several times, a UT crasher beat our guy to the boards only to have the rebound bounce a different way.

Offensively, we took what UT gave us. In the first half when it was back and forth they gave us more threes, but once they had us down in the second half by double digits they determined our slashers were going to have to beat them (though we still found a way to sink some treys). Given what we've seen against Arkansas and now UT, I think it's safe to say that if a team gets us down in the last 10 minutes of the second half, they're going follow that game plan and believe we can't beat them by shooting twos alone. We didn't have that third guy last night offensively - had Allen or Holloway been "on" we would have likely beat them handily.

Obviously, not much can be done about Jemison - he's playing out of position and simply doesn't have the body to handle bigs like UT's. Maybe Bol Bowen gets healthier or our guards get more scrappy - playing man is going to get us switched out a lot, so we'll see it a lot. Without Avent, UT simply didn't have the firepower to put us away. Gritty win in a very hostile environment. Like is mentioned here and in other threads, we're just lacking some things - most notably 1-2 more guys inside who can match up against guys like UT has. We've definitely improved over the last half of the season - really need our guys to get healthy and see how far this team can go.

 

[Coach D]

painful to watch until last 10 min but a great win. Team knows they are never out of a game. Mallette is very undervalued. I could critic some guys but no one deserves it after a hard fought win. Got to appreciate the turn around this back half and even when guys are still pretty banged up.

 

[BAMARICH]

painful to watch until last 10 min but a great win. Team knows they are never out of a game. Mallette is very undervalued. I could critic some guys but no one deserves it after a hard fought win. Got to appreciate the turn around this back half and even when guys are still pretty banged up.

The thing I take away the most from this game is that we haven’t yet reached our ceiling - we can still get better. Proud of the work they’ve put in to reach this point.

 

[BamaMoon]

That was a gutty win. One that we needed for momentum and optics.

A huge win on the road!!!

That double bye in the SEC is HUGE!!!

Tale of 2 halves; I guess the refs changed. OR; we played better?
Big win; either way.
RTR!

We played better...the way we let them get second chance points in the 1st half is untenable!

Refs pretty much swallowed their whistles the whole game. The difference is that it favors their more aggressive style of defense.

Cleaned up the glass. They had 17 offensive rebounds first half but just 8 second half. If your taking the ball out of basket every time the other team can’t set up defense.

Yep....it's usually us more than the refs and/or what the other teams does. We obviously didn't start out rebounding very well. In the first 10 minutes of the game they had close to double digit offensive rebounds.

Yeah, they crawled our backs some and they got some good bounces but that doesn't equal 10 offensive rebounds in 10 minutes.

That's called "lack of effort" on our side.

Mallett played a great game tonight. His defense and rebounding really helped.

He's very underappreciated for what he brings to this team. He's a leader in every way; thus the #95 principle!!!

As soon as his college career is over, I hope CNO puts him on our staff as a grad-assistant. I think #95 has "coach" written all over him!

Or have played it...

If someone has played the game they see things others do not...that applies to football, basketball, baseball, etc.

Sometimes, some good discussion gets shut down on this board when a legitimate topic is brought up about things we need to really improve on.

CNO is GREAT, but he isn't perfect.

Didn't get to watch yesterday until the last four minutes... finally got to watch this afternoon. This was a tale of two halves and it was the defense and bounce of the ball that made the difference. In the first half, three things happened on our defensive end. One was they constantly attacked every other inside player not named Sherrill, with Jemison being the most obvious. Two was their offensive rebounding - in particular HOW they rebounded. Whenever it was obvious a shot was going on, UT's guys crashed from the outside - and UA consistently failed to either face guard them (Dykes mentioned it once) or put any kind of body of them. If you have the game saved, go back and see how many times UT guys crashed the rim without any resistance at all from our guys - and notice which guys allowed it most often (spoiler alert - our guards). Three was the bounces of the ball. Whenever #2 happened, many times the rebound "found" those open crashers and they had easy putbacks.

Those three things changed in the second half. Jemison played sparingly (if at all) in the second half. And whoever was the "off" inside player from Sherrill, they did a much better job in putting a body on the UT player. Bol Bowen in particular did a fantastic job in doing that - you could tell it was a mission for him (he could be a defensive key for us going forward). Our guards improved on keeping UT's guys from crashing from outside - they did better at face guarding and putting a body on them. They didn't do a flawless job, but compared to the first half it was better. In the first three minutes of the second half, you could visibly see the different effort in our guards - it was emphasized at the half. Also, our inside guys did a better job of simply putting a body on a UT guy at all times. Then, the offensive rebounds simply didn't bounce UT's way as much in the second half. Several times, a UT crasher beat our guy to the boards only to have the rebound bounce a different way.

Offensively, we took what UT gave us. In the first half when it was back and forth they gave us more threes, but once they had us down in the second half by double digits they determined our slashers were going to have to beat them (though we still found a way to sink some treys). Given what we've seen against Arkansas and now UT, I think it's safe to say that if a team gets us down in the last 10 minutes of the second half, they're going follow that game plan and believe we can't beat them by shooting twos alone. We didn't have that third guy last night offensively - had Allen or Holloway been "on" we would have likely beat them handily.

Obviously, not much can be done about Jemison - he's playing out of position and simply doesn't have the body to handle bigs like UT's. Maybe Bol Bowen gets healthier or our guards get more scrappy - playing man is going to get us switched out a lot, so we'll see it a lot. Without Avent, UT simply didn't have the firepower to put us away. Gritty win in a very hostile environment. Like is mentioned here and in other threads, we're just lacking some things - most notably 1-2 more guys inside who can match up against guys like UT has. We've definitely improved over the last half of the season - really need our guys to get healthy and see how far this team can go.

Good observations.

I know Williamson gets a lot of grief, but he's a very good teammate and his ability to give Sherrell 2 minute blows at strategic moments will be the difference in how far we can go in March.

Bottom line, without Sherrell playing about 30 minutes a game, we don't have a chance in the post-season!

I'm going to make a prediction about Williamson...because of his great attitude and his willingness to keep on trying (even though he's physically not as gifted at this level as we had hoped), there is going to be a moment when he's in the game that he'll make a HUGE play to help us win a game in the post-season. It may be a key rebound or a putback for 2 or he may make a key free throw, but I think something good is going to happen for him! I'm rooting for him!!!

Same for Bol Bowen... we desperately need them to make an impact down low when they are in the game!!!

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

We have a real possibility of winning 10 in a row in the SEC. That is something I did not expect early in the season.

 

[bvandegraff]

I'm going to make a prediction about Williamson...because of his great attitude and his willingness to keep on trying (even though he's physically not as gifted at this level as we had hoped), there is going to be a moment when he's in the game that he'll make a HUGE play to help us win a game in the post-season. It may be a key rebound or a putback for 2 or he may make a key free throw, but I think something good is going to happen for him! I'm rooting for him!!!

I've been critical of him, but I'd love for you to be right about this. I think he could be a real asset - I'd like to see him closer to the basket more often and be that physical presence we need down low.

 

[BamaMoon]

I've been critical of him, but I'd love for you to be right about this. I think he could be a real asset - I'd like to see him closer to the basket more often and be that physical presence we need down low.

I wish we'd switch with whoever the 4 is to defend the pick n roll when Williamson is in the game. I know it's not what we normally do, but it might allow him to stay closer to the basket, like you are talking about.

That's where he can use his body the best. Get him outside the paint and when he tries to drop in coverage after the pick n roll those guards make him look silly, getting him all crossed up.

 

[Bama Shoals]

I wish we'd switch with whoever the 4 is to defend the pick n roll when Williamson is in the game. I know it's not what we normally do, but it might allow him to stay closer to the basket, like you are talking about.

That's where he can use his body the best. Get him outside the paint and when he tries to drop in coverage after the pick n roll those guards make him look silly, getting him all crossed up.

Yep, this. He's not a bad rim protector and post defender. But get him outside the paint at all and his lack of quickness and coordination really hurts. He just needs to be that post defender/rebounder and screen setter on offense. That should be his role.

 

[CajunCrimson]

Some think that pushback means it's shutting down conversation. Like I've said before, point out whatever you like, as long as it doesn't get insanely repetitive (which often happens) -- OR broaches player/coach bashing.

I would also say that anyone that pushes on the team and staff, is fair game to be pushed back on -- as part of the chat/dialogue. What tends to happen is that people get their feelings hurt when there is push back on a comment. That's not shutting down conversation, it's challenging it. Those are two different things. If another poster or Mod feels you are wrong, it's okay to point that out.

For example: We can keep venting about rebounding all we want. But, that's just not who we are. We could be better at it, but we aren't going to be Goon Basketball (like we've seen with Tennessee, Arizona, Gonzaga (this year), and others) -- we are small, we are slim, we are fast, and we are graceful. We are greyhounds playing against pitbulls sometimes. So, you can vent about it, but it's not going to get better this year, OR maybe never with how Nate recruits and coaches.

No, Nate isn't perfect. BUT -- he's the best coach we've ever had, with Wimp and CM close behind, and Mark a distant 4th. He's got a style - -and that's his specific style. And it's working.

So, critique it all you want... just don't get so repetitive that it is over the top. And don't get feelings hurt when others push back on your opinions.

And ABOVE ALL -- be balanced when posting. If the only time some of you post is when we are losing, then what's the point? Who wants to read that?

And if you feel the need to complain during the games, we made a thread for that...

Post game -- come back and be negative if that's what you want. Just realize it's okay if others push back on your negativity.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Some think that pushback means it's shutting down conversation. Like I've said before, point out whatever you like, as long as it doesn't get insanely repetitive (which often happens) -- OR broaches player/coach bashing.

I would also say that anyone that pushes on the team and staff, is fair game to be pushed back on -- as part of the chat/dialogue. What tends to happen is that people get their feelings hurt when there is push back on a comment. That's not shutting down conversation, it's challenging it. Those are two different things. If another poster or Mod feels you are wrong, it's okay to point that out.

For example: We can keep venting about rebounding all we want. But, that's just not who we are. We could be better at it, but we aren't going to be Goon Basketball (like we've seen with Tennessee, Arizona, Gonzaga (this year), and others) -- we are small, we are slim, we are fast, and we are graceful. We are greyhounds playing against pitbulls sometimes. So, you can vent about it, but it's not going to get better this year, OR maybe never with how Nate recruits and coaches.

No, Nate isn't perfect. BUT -- he's the best coach we've ever had, with Wimp and CM close behind, and Mark a distant 4th. He's got a style - -and that's his specific style. And it's working.

So, critique it all you want... just don't get so repetitive that it is over the top. And don't get feelings hurt when others push back on your opinions.

And ABOVE ALL -- be balanced when posting. If the only time some of you post is when we are losing, then what's the point? Who wants to read that?

And if you feel the need to complain during the games, we made a thread for that...

Post game -- come back and be negative if that's what you want. Just realize it's okay if others push back on your negativity.

Good post! And, for goodness sake, never say "player 'X' is a bust." No one wearing the Bama uniform and playing his best is a 'bust.' Believe it or not, it's come out over the years that the players read this site and others. There are ways to talk about a player's impact without using hurtful words...