The 12th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide took on the top-ranked Arizona Wildcats on Saturday night at Legacy Arena in Birmingham. In the words of former Alabama coach Avery Johnson, it was a tale of two halves. The Tide and Cats brawled through an exciting first half with Bama taking a 41-39 lead into the locker room at the break. Things changed dramatically in the second stanza and ‘Zona coasted to the 96-75 victory. Alabama fell to 7-3 while Arizona improved to 10-0.
Alabama got back three of four injured players that sat out the teams last game, but none 0f the three, Aden Holloway, Taylor Bol Bowen, and Keitenn Bristow, made much of an impact in the contest. Coach Nate Oats sent out a starting lineup of Labaron Philon, Holloway, Bol Bowen, Latrell Wrightsell, and Aiden Sherrell.
Sherrell hit a three pointer to open the scoring. The teams took turns taking leads from 3-5 points. When Wrightsell drilled a long three pointer the Tide led 37-30 with 6:50 left in the half. Arizona went on a 9-0 run to lead 39-37. A Sherrell jam and a Philon hoop at the rim gave Bama a 41-39 advantage heading into the locker room.
Alabama shot 15-30 including 7-17 from deep for 41% and made 4-4 free throws. The Tide held their own on the boards with 19 rebounds, blocked nine shots, had eight assists, only one steal, and committed six turnovers. Eleven players saw action in the half, but only five of them scored. Philon led the way with 12 points, six rebounds, five assists, and one block. Wrightsell, after suffering through a 4-18 shooting night in the team’s last game, also scored 12 on 5-7 shooting. Sherrell scored seven points with two rebounds and five blocked shots. Bol Bowen also had seven points, had three rebounds, two blocks, and three of the teams turnovers. Houston Mallette notched three points as the only other player to score. Jalil Bethea, who broke out with 21 points against UTSA on Wednesday, only saw the court for one minute in the period.
Arizona shot only 33% in the first half, but got up 12 more attempts than the Tide, making 14-42 shots, and 5-17 from three point range for 29%. The Cats made 6-7 at the charity stripe, grabbed 24 rebounds, dished out five assists, stole three balls, had no blocks, and only committed three turnovers. Former Alabama player Jaden Bradley led the way with 11 points, three rebounds, and three assists. Brayden Burries and Motiejus Krivas tallied eight points each.
The Tide kept the same starters for the second half and things went off the rails quickly. Wrightsell made two free throws to open the half for. 43-39 lead and that was the highlight of the second 20 minutes. By the 15:48 mark Arizona held a 49-45 lead, and by the time there was 9:20 left the lead had ballooned to 72-54. The Tide struggled t0 keep the deficit round 20 points throughout the rest of the game. The Wildcats just throughly thrashed Bama through out the half.
Bama regressed in every aspect in the second half, shooting 10-26 for 38%, 5-15 from deep for 33%, and 9-14 at the line for 64%. The Tide only had 13 second half rebounds, and only one of those was on offense. Overall Alabama finished 25-56 for 45%, 22-31 for 38% from three, and 13-18 for 72% on freebies. Bama grabbed 32 total rebounds, with a dismal three boards offensively, had 12 assists, two steals, 15 blocked shots, and 15 turnovers. Philon finished with 24 points with 10 rebounds and five assists. Wrightsell added 21 points on 8-12 shooting. Bol Bowen scored eight, rebounded four, and blocked four shots. Sherrell scored seven points with five rebounds and eight blocks before sitting out the last 12 minutes of the game with ““full body cramps” according to Oats. Holloway failed to score and only attempted two shots, neither from three point range, in 21 minutes of mostly useless action. Bethea saw only two minutes of action with no explanation from Oats, and Davion Hannah never saw the floor.
Arizona shot 22-42 in the second and 5-9 from three and made 8-13 free throws. Overall the Cats shot 36-84 for 43%. 10-26 for 39% from three, and 14-20 at the charity stripe. The Wildcats had 52 rebounds, 22 of which were on the offensive glass, blocked one shot, had 10 steals, 16 assists, and only four turnovers. Burries, a freshman that was a top Tide recruiting target, exploded for 20 points in the second half, finishing with 28 points and seven rebounds. Bradley had 14 points, seven assists, five rebounds, and three steals. Krivas had 14 points and 14 rebounds including nine offensive boards. Tobe Awaka scored seven points and grabbed 15 rebounds with seven offensively. Alabama totaled 32 rebounds, Krivas and Awaka combined for 30 by themselves.
Just like the losses to Purdue and Gonzaga the Tide was destroyed on the glass by bigger, stronger, tougher teams. When Oats was asked why he didn’t call a timeout during the Wildcats 28-6 run early in the second half he said ““call a timeout and tell them what, play harder?” Oats stressed “we have a rebounding problem” and zeroed in on Bol Bowen, saying “ Taylor is 6’10” and plays a lot of minutes, and if he doesn’t want to do it, we need to find someone that will.“ Oats continued ”if we aren’t going to rebound we are going to lose, we don’t have a shot against these good teams if we don’t change something.“
Another thing I want to address is the playing of these high profile games in Birmingham. It seems that the Tide hasn’t had much luck in Legacy Arena over the last several years. In Coach Wimp Sanderson’s glory days his teams played quite well in the Magic City. Part of the problem recently has been the fact that the opponents are typically highly ranked teams. The Tide did lose to Davidson a few seasons ago. I know that these are neutral site games in the NCAA’s eyes which helps with rankings come tournament time. Alabama consistently plays one of the toughest schedules in the country so the benefit of the neutral site isn’t that great. I feel that college sports belong on campus and that Oats has raised the bar in Tuscaloosa and the crowds have been incredible. For all the grief that Coleman Coliseum gets, it is a far better venue than Legacy in every way.
Next up the Tide hosts South Florida on Wednesday at 7 p.m. CT in Coleman on SEC Network Plus. After that another “home game” on Sunday against Kennesaw State IN HUNTSVILLE. The game is at 1 p.m. CT and will also be on SEC N Plus.
‘Roll Tide
