Alabama basketball has certainly had a rollercoaster of a season from wins over teams like Gonzaga, Houston, and Baylor to tough losses against Georgia and Missouri. This team has shown week by week that they can beat the best, but crumble against some of their easy opponents. Why is this you might be wondering, well the answers lie in the stats.
Some may say Alabama’s problem spawn from the difficult schedule that ranks highly across the nation. With a possible ten ranked games in their season, it is indisputable that this team has had no easy road to victory. Seven of those ranked games are in the top ten including three top four teams. However, Alabama has walked away with several of these tough ranked games and often in incredible fashion, so why are they losing to unranked teams?
This problem lies in the inconsistency of the tide’s ability to shoot. The sharpshooting tide of 2020 was quite the team to watch when they took the SEC by storm. This year’s team is not that team however averaging only 31.4% from the three and a rough 44.8% from the midrange. This kind of shooting is the fatal flaw for this year’s tide.
With five-star freshman JD Davison coming in, the tide was hopeful of yet another powerful offense that could run the floor to outscore teams. Sadly, JD Davison has not panned out to the shooter they believed him to be averaging a mere 29$ from the three and 47.3% from the floor. This lackluster offense has led to the preseason excitement quickly vanishing in the past.
The Tide’s ability to score comes from returning guards Jaden Shackleford and Jahvon Quinerly. The speed and agility of Alabama’s guards cause a tough matchup problem for teams as they will beat you to the rim or leave you lost from short. While these two show up game in and game out they cannot win every game by themselves.
In each of Alabama’s losses, we have seen an inability of the team to produce multiple scorers. This problem has shown up in several games down the line starting with a tough loss to Iona back in November. The team works hard defensively, but the complete loss of offense has shown to be fatal for a team that was ranked within the top ten at the beginning of the season.
With all this being said the team’s season is not over. With strong wins at home and on the road, it is undeniable this team will see the tournament at the end of the season, but where they will be seeded is the big question. Following the win over Baylor, the tide is projected to be a five seed going into March Madness. This seeding is dependent upon the Tide’s ability to finish the season strong with several ranked games left along the way. With two hard games against an up-and-coming Kentucky and a road challenge against LSU, there is still a lot of room to rise and fall.
The key to the Tide going throughout the rest of the season will be finding a way for the offense to be more productive across the board. It would also be beneficial for players like Juwan Gary and Charles Bediako to become more confident on the offensive side of the ball to back up their strong defense. We have seen greatness from these players all year, but it needs to be more consistent on both sides of the floor.
The ability of Alabama to win big games has kept them in the discussion all year, but if they proceed to take more easy losses on their record their seeding could drop quickly. It is important for them to win the majority of their remaining games including a win against Kentucky. A run in the SEC tournament could also show the committee that this team can play with the best of teams even after a long season.
The SEC tournament will be a great tell-tale for how the Tide will perform in the post-season tournament. While the Tide took a strong road win against Gonzaga, they showed to be shaken by the tough environment of Auburn on the road. This is why a run in the tournament will tell how this team competes in tough situations.
