Alabama looks to continue winning ways on road at Arkansas
Alabama will begin the month of February with its fourth road game in its last six outings in Fayetteville versus the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday.
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama basketball team will begin the month of February with its fourth road game in its last six outings, as the Crimson Tide (13-7, 6-2 SEC) will travel to Fayetteville, Ark., to face the Arkansas Razorbacks on Wednesday.
In conference play, Alabama has won three of its four games away from Coleman Coliseum this season, including an 80-60 win over Georgia one week ago. The Crimson Tide has won two games in a row and will look to continue its success away from Tuscaloosa in its ninth game of SEC play.
What’s been the secret to success? Head coach
Avery Johnson has more than one possible answer.
“I think finishing games strong,” Johnson said Tuesday. “Outside of one game … we’ve finished games strong. We’ve had some tough games in the non-conference where we didn’t play as well as I thought we would down the stretch, and some of those teams are ranked now. But I think there’s some areas where we’re growing … and give our team credit for turning up our defense and creating some turnovers.
“But it’s just leadership, man. Having Corban (Collins) coming off the bench and settling our team down and Dazon (Ingram) growing up and Braxton (Key) growing up and Jimmie (Taylor)’s been a warrior.”
While Johnson and Alabama have been able to string together some road wins to begin SEC play, the Crimson Tide has struggled mightily when playing at Bud Walton Arena.
(Photo: Marvin Gentry, USA TODAY Sports)
Wednesday’s game will be the 25th time Alabama has played at Fayetteville, and the Tide has won just six times at Arkansas (6-18). Alabama has lost two straight and eight of the last nine games at Arkansas. The only Crimson Tide win over that stretch that dates back to the 2004-05 season.
So Alabama will look to buck an old trend while continuing to establish its new-found identity with its bigger lineup on the home court of a 16-5 (5-3 SEC) Razorback team. And senior guard
Corban Collins, like his head coach, thinks he knows what it will take.
“Just having that confidence,” Collins said Tuesday. “We feel like we were able to build it in our non-conference schedule, playing a couple of tough road games and just knowing that if we do what we’re supposed to do, stick to our game plan, we can have success on the road.”
Alabama-Arkansas will tip off at 6 p.m. CT and will be televised on the SEC Network. Dave Neal (play-by-play) and Chris Spatola (analyst) will be on the call in Fayetteville, Ark.
KEY HAS BEEN A MAJOR KEY
True freshman forward
Braxton Key was named the SEC Freshman of the Week for his efforts in the Crimson Tide’s pair of wins over Georgia and Mississippi State the previous week.
The 6-foot-8, 225-pound forward from Charlotte, N.C., averaged 22.5 points and nine rebounds while shooting 45.8 percent from the floor, 50.0 percent from three and 70.8 percent from the charity stripe in wins at Georgia and against Mississippi State.
Key led the charge against Georgia with a career-high 26 points to go along with nine rebounds and a pair of assists. Key followed that up with a performance that featured a game-high 18 points, along with nine boards vs. Mississippi State on Saturday.
Johnson said he can see Key “growing up before our very eyes,” while Collins, one of two grad transfers on the team, said Alabama’s lone freshman is no longer seen as a freshman.
“Like I said at the beginning of the year, Braxton’s a big-time kid, man,” Collins said. “He’s coming in and really stepping up and taking on that role for us as a scorer, as the go-to guy for our team. We’ve needed that all year. He’s just been doing what we knew he’s been able to do.
“They brought him in for a reason. He was a big-time recruit coming out of high school, and now he’s coming into his own as a college player at the right time.”
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Key has recorded three straight games of scoring 18 or more points, averaging 22.5 points and 9.0 rebounds per game, while shooting 45.8 (11-of-24) from the floor and 50.0 percent (4-of-8) from three and 70.8 percent (19-of-27) from the free throw line.
(Photo: Adam Hagy, USA TODAY Sports)
The former four-star recruit currently tops the Tide with 11.9 points and 6.0 rebounds per game. In doing so, he is one of just seven Division-I freshmen in the country who leads his team in both categories. And his head coach has started to create mismatches with him at the two-guard spot.
“When you’re 6-8, man, 230 pounds and you can pass, dribble and shoot and you can defend 1-4, that’s a pretty good luxury. That’s a serious gift,” Johnson said. “So I just think now instead of him playing against the 6-10 guys or a 6-9 guy, most of the time he’s bigger and stronger and just as athletic and fast on his feet as the guy that he’s playing against.”
END OF FREE THROWS WOES?
Alabama shot 86.1 percent (31-of-36) from the charity stripe in its most recent 71-62 win over Mississippi State. The number of free throws made, attempted and the percentage the Tide shot against the Bulldogs were all season highs through 20 games.
Needless to say, Alabama had struggled with shooting a high percentage from the free throw line for most of the season until Saturday’s game, and taking notice, Johnson placed a major emphasis on them during the Tide’s practice sessions of late.
And after witnessing the improved performance against Mississippi State, the former NBA Coach of the Year’s tactics seemed to have righted the ship -- at least for now.
“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice,” Collins said. “Coach has been telling us a couple secrets, a couple tricks that he knew from the NBA, changed a couple of guys’ routines and just told us to come out there and step up there with confidence.
“He’s really been big on us moving on to the next play, the next shot. If we miss one, don’t let that one that we missed affect the next one. Move onto the next one, have a short-term memory. Just have confidence to go out there and knock them down.”
Collins said Johnson has suggested his players get their legs involved in shooting free throws, instead of using only their arms. But the second-year head coach insisted there’s no secret to success at the charity stripe, only a need for consistency. And in the win over the Bulldogs, the players saw what a consistent outing at the line can do to help their chances.
“Now we know what we’re capable of,” Johnson said. “Between Braxton and Dazon and Corban, we’ve tweaked a little of how they approach the free-throw line and their routine. … I like the fruit of our labor in terms of what we had been working on came to pass in that last game.
“It shows if they’re in the right mindset, if they go through their consistent routine, there’s a high percentage of a chance we can make it. But if something goes wrong, because some things go wrong sometimes, no matter how you shoot it, it’s all about the next one. Too many times we have allowed a missed free throw to affect our next shot or our next possession on offense.”
