Yesterday (Wednesday) was a very good day for Crimson Tide Athletics. Another successful day of football recruiting was topped off with a double-digit SEC victory by our MEN’S BASKETBALL team over Missouri (recap here). Now the Tide begins a stretch of three of the next four games on the road, beginning with a game at LSU on Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
As of Thursday evening (Feb. 5), Alabama had an RPI of no. 41 in the nation according to KenPom.com. The Tide was one of nine teams in the Southeastern Conference to boast a top 50 RPI according to the website, which leads all conferences. The Tide outrebounded No. 1 Kentucky, 26-21, last Saturday in a losing effort (recap here). It was only the fourth time this season Kentucky has been beaten on the boards. We shot 45.9 percent against the Wildcats, the second-highest shooting percentage allowed by Kentucky this season.
In SEC games, Alabama leads the league in field goal percentage (.447) and three-point field goal percentage defense (.278), ranks second in scoring defense (59.9) and fourth in field goal percentage defense (.403). Four of our last seven games have been decided by two points each (68-66 loss at South Carolina, 93-91 loss at Arkansas, 57-55 win over Auburn and 52-50 loss to Florida). Of our eight defeats this season, four have come by a single possession. Heading into the LSU game, Alabama had dropped five of its nine SEC contests, three of them by two points each. In fact, the only team to have beaten Alabama by more than a basket in league play was Kentucky (twice).
The SEC is a tightly-contested conference, and one interesting stat bears this out: of the 62 SEC games played this year through Feb. 4, 24 had been decided by five points or less. There are nine SEC games left and the race for bids to the NCAA Tournament is still wide open. Let’s get behind this team and coaching staff, and give them the support they deserve.