News Article: Should CNO Change the Starting Lineup?

[BamaMoon]

A shakeup to the starting lineup may be necessary for Nate Oats, Alabama basketball

It was an abysmal offensive outing for Alabama basketball in a home loss on Tuesday night to the Ole Miss Rebels. The Tide managed a season-low 64 points, break

bamahammer.com

I like the suggestion of starting Hollaway and Youngblood. It's a smaller lineup, but Youngblood can hold his own on defense against a taller player.

I don't know what's going on with Stevenson. Thought he'd snap out of his funk, but it's lasted so far into the season it appears to be the norm.

I love Philon, but unless he's getting to the rim successfully and hitting a few 3s he's an offensive liability.

On the other hand, Hollaway is the best 3 point shooter and Youngblood has a history of really shooting the 3 well. He probably needs more PT to get into a rhythm.

And, as pointed out in the article, these changes may in fact free up Sears to get more open looks from 3, which we really, really need!

What do y'all think?

 

[Coach D]

A shakeup to the starting lineup may be necessary for Nate Oats, Alabama basketball

It was an abysmal offensive outing for Alabama basketball in a home loss on Tuesday night to the Ole Miss Rebels. The Tide managed a season-low 64 points, break

bamahammer.com

I like the suggestion of starting Hollaway and Youngblood. It's a smaller lineup, but Youngblood can hold his own on defense against a taller player.

I don't know what's going on with Stevenson. Thought he'd snap out of his funk, but it's lasted so far into the season it appears to be the norm.

I love Philon, but unless he's getting to the rim successfully and hitting a few 3s he's an offensive liability.

On the other hand, Hollaway is the best 3 point shooter and Youngblood has a history of really shooting the 3 well. He probably needs more PT to get into a rhythm.

And, as pointed out in the article, these changes may in fact free up Sears to get more open looks from 3, which we really, really need!

What do y'all think?

Philon has only had what two bad games?
I have mentioned Stevenson a lot this year and mostly described as a disappointment. He plays hard and I appreciate that but something isn’t clicking and haven’t understood him starting other than for injured guys. But if he is giving the most defensive effort I can see CNOs starting him and giving huge minutes to make a statement.

Not you can take out Philon for Holloways because Philon generally is a far better ball handler and distributor than Holloway and almost Sears.

Just a note about the poor shooting from this team, it lost two of its three best 3pt shooters in Wrightsell and Mallette I think. Holloway is over performing at this point, which is needed.

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

Holloway is playing better than both Philon and Youngblood imo. I like Holloway/ Philon on the floor together and Sears/Youngblood paired together. I think those groups balance eachother out well. I feel like putting Sears and Holloway on the floor at the same time is hard to do because they both like to hold onto the ball a little longer (Sears much more so).

Stephenson has been doing a lot for us all over the floor Blue Collar wise, he is just been a liability from 3 to say the least. I really like when Mo D gets more playing time but the offensive output just isn't there. I'd like to see Mo get a few starts.

Cliff and Grant I don't really have any issues with.

Maybe not a perfect lineup but one I'd like to see START a game just for an experiment:

Holloway
Philon
Mo D
Nelson
Cliff

I'm not doing a whole lotta coaching so might be a disaster but I'd love to see how they could start us on a run early in the game AND get a few stops. Especially in a game like Kentucky where the over/under is gonna push 180..

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

I'd like to think the farther we get into the season that our shooters are gonna hit their normal clip of 3s and the starting lineup won't matter AS much. For whatever reason it's taking a little longer this season. It can't hurt to tamper with the lineup a little after an overall terrible showing we gave last game.

 

[CrimsonTitles]

I don't think we need to make any changes yet. I think we're overreacting a bit about the Ole Miss game .Ole Miss is a very good team, especially defensively, along with having probably the 2nd best coach in the SEC (after Oats). This was a combination of us having a bad day, Ole Miss playing great defense, and things just not falling our way. Before the Ole Miss game, we were one of the hottest teams in basketball. That doesn't change after one bad game. I also think Ole Miss is getting the Vandy treatment from our fans, simply because they're usually not good. But this year's team is different, especially with Beard at the helm. I don't really know why everyone is so shocked. I had Ole Miss at around a 4-5 NCAA tourney seed preseason, and they seem to be on that path. Even before the game, I thought there was a good chance we could lose, but I was hopeful that we wouldn't.

 

[Tide_and_Prejudice]

I don't think we need to make any changes yet. I think we're overreacting a bit about the Ole Miss game .Ole Miss is a very good team, especially defensively, along with having probably the 2nd best coach in the SEC (after Oats). This was a combination of us having a bad day, Ole Miss playing great defense, and things just not falling our way. Before the Ole Miss game, we were one of the hottest teams in basketball. That doesn't change after one bad game. I also think Ole Miss is getting the Vandy treatment from our fans, simply because they're usually not good. But this year's team is different, especially with Beard at the helm. I don't really know why everyone is so shocked. I had Ole Miss at around a 4-5 NCAA tourney seed preseason, and they seem to be on that path. Even before the game, I thought there was a good chance we could lose, but I was hopeful that we wouldn't.

As far as coaches are concerned, after Oats, I would have to give it to Pearl then it's a tie between Beard and Barnes.

I'm with you on Ole Miss they are on track to sit at the top of the SEC for the next few years. But something seemed off with us in that game. I have not seen that lack effort in a while and I expect a turnaround game tomorrow with Bama winning by a 3-6 point margin.

 

[BamaMoon]

I don't think changing the starting 5 is an "overreaction" to OM. Our offense has sputtered a lot and there's been a real problem with our 3 point shooting.

 

[CajunCrimson]

I don't think changing the starting 5 is an "overreaction" to OM. Our offense has sputtered a lot and there's been a real problem with our 3 point shooting.

#1 scoring team in the nation.

 

[AUDub]

I don't think we need to make any changes yet. I think we're overreacting a bit about the Ole Miss game .Ole Miss is a very good team, especially defensively, along with having probably the 2nd best coach in the SEC (after Oats). This was a combination of us having a bad day, Ole Miss playing great defense, and things just not falling our way. Before the Ole Miss game, we were one of the hottest teams in basketball. That doesn't change after one bad game. I also think Ole Miss is getting the Vandy treatment from our fans, simply because they're usually not good. But this year's team is different, especially with Beard at the helm. I don't really know why everyone is so shocked. I had Ole Miss at around a 4-5 NCAA tourney seed preseason, and they seem to be on that path. Even before the game, I thought there was a good chance we could lose, but I was hopeful that we wouldn't.

All of this. At the end of the day individual games are a single data point and sometimes improbable things happen. If a trend starts to emerge then you can work to adjust.

And it was by no means a “bad” loss in the grand scheme of things. Ole Miss, even at home, is a Q1 team and extremely dangerous. Every team in this conference is going to have that “well that happened” type of loss because of how loaded this conference is. Look at UF against Mizzou. Hell, look at our great escape vs USCe last Saturday.

 

[BamaMoon]

#1 scoring team in the nation.

Hard to believe with our 3 point shooting % being down. We've done it with shots in the lane, at the rim and from the FT line. But even the FT shooting is off a little.

At any rate, I don't think the suggestions about Holloway and Youngblood are too far off.

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Reid get more starting minutes. I think we missed his offensive potential against OM.

 

[oskie]

A shakeup to the starting lineup may be necessary for Nate Oats, Alabama basketball

It was an abysmal offensive outing for Alabama basketball in a home loss on Tuesday night to the Ole Miss Rebels. The Tide managed a season-low 64 points, break

bamahammer.com

I like the suggestion of starting Hollaway and Youngblood. It's a smaller lineup, but Youngblood can hold his own on defense against a taller player.

I don't know what's going on with Stevenson. Thought he'd snap out of his funk, but it's lasted so far into the season it appears to be the norm.

I love Philon, but unless he's getting to the rim successfully and hitting a few 3s he's an offensive liability.

On the other hand, Hollaway is the best 3 point shooter and Youngblood has a history of really shooting the 3 well. He probably needs more PT to get into a rhythm.

And, as pointed out in the article, these changes may in fact free up Sears to get more open looks from 3, which we really, really need!

What do y'all think?

I’m not against changing the starting lineup, but I don’t think it’s necessary, as the title of this article suggests. Furthermore, I happen to think we have a good starting 5. Coaches have had half a season to find the best starting 5. I think they probably have found it - for now.

If you tweak the lineup to put more offense on the floor for a faster start, you run the risk of a weaker defense, giving your opponent more opportunity for a faster start.

Our offense has been the hot topic this week because they seemed to be AWOL last game, but based on what the coaches and players have been saying for the past few years, if you get your defense right, the offense will come. Youngblood said as much just this week.

 

[oskie]

Hard to believe with our 3 point shooting % being down. We've done it with shots in the lane, at the rim and from the FT line. But even the FT shooting is off a little.

At any rate, I don't think the suggestions about Holloway and Youngblood are too far off.

Also, I wouldn't mind seeing Reid get more starting minutes. I think we missed his offensive potential against OM.

Don't see Holloway as a starter, but who knows, maybe the coaches will. He hasn't shown me he can run the point, yet. But maybe he can at some time in the future.

I do think we are in need of a true point guard. Someone who can distribute the ball to the shooters. Philon strikes me as the most viable candidate. Obviously, it is a bonus if the point guard is a good shooter, also, but there should be no reason why the point guard - namely Mark - should be the high scorer for the game. Way too many really good shooters on this team.

Reid and Philon are true freshman, so they are growing with every opportunity, but I predict that in the next couple months, Reid, Philon, and Youngblood will all be earning their keep.
.