TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball wrapped up non-conference play with a 105-82 win over South Dakota State on Sunday. The Crimson Tide (11-2) has won its last five games and will now turn its attention to the best league in college basketball — the Southeastern Conference.
The Tide has had plenty of ups and downs throughout its non-conference run. It went 5-2 in seven straight games against high-major sides, including impressive wins over North Carolina and Illinois and earned gritty wins over Houston and Rutgers. However, Alabama has also struggled in losses to Purdue and Oregon as well as a unique road environment at North Dakota.
Overall, Alabama tested itself against the No. 14 best schedule according to KenPom.com. When assessing the Tide’s non-conference performance, coach Nate Oats highlighted the importance of facing good teams in non-conference play as well as a theme of improved consistency that he wants to see going forward.
“I think there’s a lot we need to be better at, there’s a lot we need to clean up to be competing for a championship in this league,” Oats said after the South Dakota State game. “But I do think we tested ourselves against some of the better teams in the country. We’ve done pretty well at times. We know when we’re playing our best we can play with anybody in the country, we just haven’t been consistent over 40 minutes.”
Oats has been particularly surprised at Alabama’s lack of consistency shooting the basketball. Despite the occasional strong shooting stretch, Alabama is still making just 31.2% of its shots from beyond the arc this season. The Tide has dealt with injuries to some of its best shooters, including Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Houston Mallette and Chris Youngblood, but Oats is still expecting improvement in the scoring department no matter if Alabama’s 3-point accuracy improves.
“Between those guys we expect to have a little bit better shooting team,” Oats said. “We’ve got to find out different ways to score the basketball when we’re not shooting. Today, we made 18 threes, but we shot 34.5% percent, so it’s not like we shot it great today. Little disappointing with how we’re shooting it from three but we’re gonna have to figure out other ways to score the basketball.”
Oats also wants to see the Tide become more consistent on the offensive glass along with creating and limiting turnovers. The Tide gained some momentum in that department Sunday with a season-low of six turnovers against South Dakota State while converting 14 Jackrabbits giveaways into 24 points.
Though there is still room for improvement as a whole, Oats highlighted a few pleasant surprises this season. The biggest of which has been the play of freshman guard Labaron Philon. The hype for the four-star recruit first began over the summer and he has become a mainstay in the starting lineup and is averaging 11.7 points, 3.7 and 3.8 assists this season. Derrion Reid has also had a strong start to his first season of college basketball. Though he missed the South Dakota State game with an injury, Reid is averaging 7.5 points and 3.7 rebounds and has looked particularly strong in extended minutes through the Tide’s last four games.
As Alabama heads into SEC play, Oats is confident that the Tide’s non-conference schedule prepared his team to contend in the best conference in college basketball. Alabama has been far from perfect on both ends, but games against different types of systems and schemes have helped foster growth and given Alabama different looks to get it ready for the strong opponents and environments it will face in the SEC.
“We’ve learned a lot,” Oats said. “Going down to Purdue and playing a tough road game, even North Dakota, they were a tough road game. Got to get our lead player package together, we got exposed on that a little up there. We’ve seen lots of different styles, our post defense got exposed a little bit, particularly starting with the Purdue game. We’ve got to be a little bit better with that and have different options with that. Different things we got exposed on that we’ve got to work on, we’ve just got to keep working on it”
Alabama will face undefeated Oklahoma to tip off SEC play. The Sooners (13-0) have been one of the biggest surprises across college basketball so far and are one of three remaining unbeaten SEC sides. Oats acknowledged the strength of the conference as a whole and went back to the theme of consistency that Alabama will have to find in order to be successful during conference play this season.
“I think hopefully our guys, with the level of these teams in the SEC, they’ll be better at staying locked in and focused for 40 minutes,” Oats said. “We got Oklahoma who’s far exceeded everyone’s expectations so far in the year coming in to start the thing out. This is not gonna be an easy game, they’re talent level is good, they’ve good a really good coach. [Porter Moser’s] taken Loyola [Chicago] to the Final Four and been really good. They’re well coached with talent that plays hard, they’re gonna be tough to beat. If we’re gonna have any kind of chance to win the SEC you’ve got to take care of your home floor, so we’ve got a home game to start and we’ll have to be ready to roll against Oklahoma in six days.”
The Tide and Sooners will square off at 5 p.m. CT Saturday inside Coleman Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.
