After a dominant second half in Starkville where the 18th-ranked Alabama Crimson Tide answered a major gut check in a big way, Nate Oats’ squad now heads to the Sooner state to take on Porter Moser’s outfit in Norman. Things haven’t exactly gone well for the Tide the last couple of times Alabama had an early tip-off in that spot:
Considering the current health of the team, this game absolutely screams ‘TRAP’. Hopefully, the Tide’s performance in Starkville the other night carries over – it’s hard to fall into a trap if you have recently been upset like Alabama was by Texas last Saturday. But it’s certainly not impossible, and while Oklahoma hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on fire this season – or really the entire Moser era – they were massive underdogs in our previous two trips to Norman as well.
Ideally, the Mississippi State game was the beginning of a turnaround for the Tide. Alabama will have a full week off before its next game against Tennessee in Tuscaloosa next Saturday, so hopefully the fellas can survive one more road trip and then get healthy before the Vols come to town.
How to Watch
What: #18 Alabama (12-5, 2-2 SEC) at Oklahoma (11-6, 1-3 SEC)
Where: Lloyd Noble Center, Norman OK
When: Noon CST
TV: SEC Network
Line: Alabama -5.5
I know Oklahoma seems like a poser version of Alabama (Crimson & Cream, folks, really?), but the basketball team isn’t even trying to hide it anymore. Y’all remember Mo Wague and Derrion Reid? That’s 2/5ths of the Sooners starting lineup! Wague – as we know – is a tall but mostly ineffective center. He certainly doesn’t bring anything to the game offensively and he’s either blocking a shot or fouling on defense. Reid was a former five star who should be suiting up for the Tide still – I have no idea why he left here for that increasingly irrelevant program in Norman – but he provides good size as a 6’8 wing who can handle the ball and score at a decent clip (11.4 PPG on 48.8%/36.0%/73.5%). Expect both of these guys to bring their full efforts to this one.
Porter Moser is kind of an old school coach. He has a very traditional approach to the game, both positionally and in scheme. There’s a lot of set plays, screens, half court play, etc. That approach can absolutely still work well, but it almost requires experience in the system, and in today’s transfer portal/NIL world, it’s just hard to sell that and get people to buy-in, let alone stick around – Wague is about the only returning player from last season who plays significant minutes, and again, it’s not like he’s been there for years.
It’s mostly been a failure for Moser in Norman. And at the rate things are progressing, I’d expect him to be handed the pink slip come April. However, desperation can make a man dangerous, and Alabama certainly doesn’t want to fall victim to it.
Three Keys to Victory
- Control the Tempo. Porter Moser’s teams as a whole are generally bigger and slower. In a stylistic battle like the one we’ll see tomorrow between him and Oats, whichever team can control the pace of the game will have a huge advantage. Alabama did a terrible job of this in both recent losses in Norman, but the Tide pulled a complete 180 in Tuscaloosa last year for the SEC opener en route to a 107-79 thrashing of the Sooners. The correlation between tempo and game result between these two is significant.
- Defend the Guards. Point guard Nijel Pack – one of the higher usage players in the SEC – is a sixth-year senior who transferred in from Miami this season. He can really score the basketball (15.7 PPG on 48.0%/45.1%/81.8%) and is among the best three-point shooters in the conference. Xzayvier Brown, who transferred in from St. Joe’s, doesn’t have the same range (34.6% 3P%), but he is among the top-15 in the country in Free Throw shooting (93.0%). These two guards carry a lot of the weight for this team offensively. Alabama’s guards did a tremendous job making life difficult for Josh Hubbard the other night in Starkville, they need to bring that effort again tomorrow.
- Keep Attacking the Paint. After the first ten minutes or so, the Tide put on an Oats masterclass on offense the other night. The guards were attacking the paint with purpose, beating the slower State defenders to the rim or forcing a defensive rotation for the trademark kick-out for three. Labaron Philon dropped a career high 32 points on just 14 attempts, and Aiden Sherrill also had a career high with 22, as his job became very easy with Philon and company consistently getting into the paint. Oklahoma has not been good defensively this season (131st in the country), in large part because of their inability to defend the perimeter. But you can’t take advantage of that by passing the ball around the arc. Keep attacking.
Better Tide teams than this one have failed to wake up in time for lunch with the Sooners in Norman, but hopefully those previous experiences – combined with recent failures – will give this year’s squad the jolt it needs to get off to a good start and take care of business tomorrow.
