Nate Oats took his squad down to Gainesville today, and they embarrassed themselves in a national spotlight game on ABC.
This one was quite the battle early on. Both teams came out inspired on both ends, and the first 15 minutes were played to a virtual draw. Florida enjoyed the expected advantage down low even with Charles Bediako added to the mix, but Alabama’s guards kept them in the game with three point marksmanship.
Unfortunately, the last 5 minutes of the half didn’t go so well. Florida went on a 9-0 run to get some distance on the scoreboard and ended up taking a 46-36 lead into the locker room. Bediako was solid defensively, but Aiden Sherrell and Noah Williamson were victimized repeatedly on the block. As a result, Florida bigs Alex Condon and Thomas Baugh combined for 27 first half points on 11-18 shooting. At least Alabama was somehow able to keep things even on the boards at 15 apiece.
Offensively, Alabama made 43% from deep but turned the ball over a whopping nine times without forcing any from Florida. Labaron Philon had one of his dumb halves with three turnovers against only two baskets and zero assists. Philon is going to have to learn to play better off the ball at the next level, because he seems to only contribute offensively off the dribble and too often becomes a black hole. Aden Holloway carried the mail with 13 points on 3-5 three point shooting, and Bediako led the Tide with five rebounds.
The second half of this one looked much like the Arizona game in Birmingham. Threes weren’t falling as they did in the first half, and unfotunately this team seems to have a lot of quit in them when that happens. The dam broke on the boards, Alabama kept turning it over, and in just four minutes the deficit ballooned to 20. At times this season, Alabama has looked like a tough basketball team. Today was not one of those times.
The Tide finally hit a couple of threes to get the lead down to 73-57 at the TV timeout with eight minutes to play. If they were to have any kind of chance at a comeback, they’d have to play a bit of defense, but that just required too much effort. Boogie Fland was allowed an easy path to the hoop out of the timeout, Holloway turned the ball over for a breakaway dunk, and the lead was right back out to 20.
Mrs. Fields has never baked anything softer than this collection of basketball players.
At this point the best word to describe this team is enigmatic. When they are at their best, they look like national championship contenders. But when you see them put up performances like this one, there is no reason to believe that they can string tournament wins together against progressively better teams.
Alabama will host Texas A&M next. The Aggies started out the season rough but are 7-1 in SEC play. If you bet on any Alabama games the rest of the way, you are a true degenerate and should probably seek help.
Roll Tide.
