Bama Game Thread: MBB Bama vs Zona - B’Ham Sat Dec 13 - 8:30 CST ESPN

[AlistarWills]

We’ve only gotten 11 points off the bench tonight and Holloway has put up a goose egg as well

 

[BAMAVILLE]

I decided to sit down and watch a game....they were doing fine.....and then turnover after turnover after turnover.

Looking absolutely awful.

It's my fault, I shouldn't have watched, I hardly ever do.

Ok good, I can't take the credit for it now lol

 

[RollTide-YNWA]

75-96 Final

 

[CrimsonEyeshade]

Full exposure.

 

[AlistarWills]

Sherrell with 32 blocks on the season

 

[BAMAVILLE]

Still a long season to go, but this team has to figure out elite teams dont wait to play championship-caliber ball until the tournament. The bring that effort every game.

To be fair, this Zona team has beaten a majority of their opponents by double-digits. I was just hoping our guys finally turned the corner.

Roll Tide

 

[cthorne22]

There are guys on this team that I would not put on the floor again until I see significant effort improvement. Don't care how much NIL is at stake

 

[CajunCrimson]

Still a long season to go, but this team has to figure out elite teams dont wait to play championship-caliber ball until the tournament. The bring that effort every game.

To be fair, this Zona team has beaten a majority of their opponents by double-digits. I was just hoping our guys finally turned the corner.

Roll Tide

There are only 6 teams that I know can play so aggressively outside because of their size inside.

Arizona
UConn
Purdue
Ilinois
Gonzaga
Michigan
Maybe… Duke

We handled Illinois. And Clemson too. And St John’s. Some teams are matchup nightmares. This was one.

We thought it would be a down year. I’ll take down years like this every time. We can make a Final 4.

 

[CajunCrimson]

There are guys on this team that I would not put on the floor again until I see significant effort improvement. Don't care how much NIL is at stake

Disagree. What effort are you referencing? Our inside guys played hard. Taylor, Amari, Aiden and even Noah played hard. Bristow was absent but he’s been hurt. Holloway didn’t shoot a single 3

Houston and Wrightsell played hard. So who didn’t give effort?

 

[CajunCrimson]

I would ask some of you to look beyond the stats. They don’t always tell the entire story

We are built to play our style. We won’t match up well with some teams. Some won’t match up well with us.

 

[BamaBoySince89]

Too small down low. Until Oats does something about this, we’ll get handled by the Arizona/Gonzaga/Purdue/UConn’s/Michigan’s of the world every time.

 

[Bama Shoals]

We played a great first half but continue to not be able to put together 40 minutes against elite, physical teams. We are just too physically weak at too many positions to hold up. It didn’t help that Sherrell had to leave in the 2nd half with some kind of problem. They said he went to the locker room wiith a trainer. Hope he’s OK because if he’s not, we are absolutely done inside. Florida will eat us alive with their front line.

CNO is going to have to do a better job of identifying guys who can play against these types of teams. But I’m concerned he won’t be able to get over the hump with his system. Hope I’m wrong but he’s already had 7 seasons.

 

[bvandegraff]

Was at my kid's volleyball tournament and missed the game. Planned to watch a replay but accidentally saw the final score and decided to spare myself the aggravation of watching what sounds like a pretty frustrating second half.

I don't suppose there's any room in Oats' system for even one 26 yo 7'1" semipro Eurogoon rebounding freak. Teams with size and strength in the interior do often seem to be Bama's kryptonite.

In fairness, Arizona's done this to everyone they've played so far, and Bama is usually a work in progress this early in the season with so much youth and roster turnover.

 

[BamaMoon]

I think CNO had a bad night. Granted I missed the first 5 minutes watching UK and IU and didn't realize it started on ESPN News. So when I picked up play, the score was close and remained so the rest of the 1st half.

First, Holloway was totally ineffective. I know he's been injured, but why he ran point a lot while he was in the game didn't make sense to me. First, him getting to the rim ain't gonna happen again against a team like that. But also, he's just better playing off the ball and spotting up for 3. And when you put the ball in his hands at point, you are taking it out of our best players' hands.

Along the same lines, Bethea only played 3 minutes after putting up 20 the last game??? That's criminal!!! He's a 6' 5" guard who can shoot the 3 AND also hit the boards effectively. That was a huge mistake.

And I know CNO wants guys to take open looks from 3, but when Sherrell is jacking up 3s and they are bricks, those are not good shots. It seemed we didn't recognize they defensive MO was the take away our shooters from 3 and to give low percentage shooter an open look.

The biggest issue is when CNO let them go on the 11-0 run without intervening. I know he addressed that in the Post Game PC, but a TO there is about stopping THEIR momentum and perhaps setting a scripted play that might give us a score. First time he called a timeout was with 3:00 to go after we were down 20???

 

[Bpilktree]

Too small down low. Until Oats does something about this, we’ll get handled by the Arizona/Gonzaga/Purdue/UConn’s/Michigan’s of the world every time.

I think they were really counting on Noah Williamson to help with the size inside. He has been a complete disaster so far and I am not sure why. I know he played in small conference and all but he still played some decent teams at points and held his own. This year he looks way overmatched.

 

[TideMan09]

After digesting last night's game, if Coach O every gets aggressive with our big men boxing out rebounding, as we are shooting 3's, we could be just as good as Arizona or any blue blood basketball team..

We're a great team that needs too focus on rebounding like we do shooting 3's..

 

[cthorne22]

Just maybe another trait for frontcourt could be rebounding. Right now, who cares if they can spread the floor with the threat of the 3. 5 out baby!
You just can't be this vulnerable.
Again, we're loose with the ball and get destroyed on the boards.

 

[cthorne22]

We're so bad on defense (including rebounding) I don't understand why we don't press for 40 minutes of hell

 

[teamplayer]

I would ask some of you to look beyond the stats. They don’t always tell the entire story

We are built to play our style. We won’t match up well with some teams. Some won’t match up well with us.

I agree with your thoughts here, but it confuses me when CNO calls out guys for a lack of toughness. I mean, I get it, but he doesn't recruit guys who play that style. We are a run and gun team that needs to hit a high percentage of threes to be successful, and that is fine. It just seems shortsighted or hypocritical to recruit and coach that style and then act surprised when we get pushed around in the paint. I would tell coach to go recruit a couple of bangers if that is what he wants, but don't call out those guys when they can't step out and knock down threes. If he wants us to be able to do both, he needs to make some adjustments here and there. I think he has brought us to be a top ten program right now. I hope he figures out how to get us in the top five year in and year out. He certainly seems to have the fire. Roll Tide!

 

[CB4]

For me, I thought we had opportunity to build more momentum and a bigger lead in the first half when we went up 37-30. We had multiple empty possessions and really poor shot selection IMO. I really felt we should have been up 10-15 at half rather than just up by two.
Some could be contributed to Arizona defense but, for the most part, it was sloppy offensive basketball.