š Alabama's Season Ends with 71-64 Loss to Richmond in the National Invitation Tournament
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Alabama Earns A No. 3 Seed In 2017 National Invitation Tournament
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ā The University of Alabama men's basketball team earned a No. 3 seed in the 2017 National Invitation Tournament and will host the No. 6 seed Richmond Spiders in Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday, March 14, in the opening round of the event. The Tide and the Spiders will tip off at 8:15 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
"We are excited about participating in the NIT for a second year in a row," head coach Avery Johnson said. "We felt we had a fantastic finish at the SEC Tournament overall in terms of winning games over Mississippi State and South Carolina. We came up a little short of beating a Kentucky team that was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. We think we had a nice end to the year. We played with energy and improved in a lot of areas offensively. We are excited for our seniors to continue playing and happy that our younger guys will get more games in postseason play."
The Crimson Tide earned one of 22 at-large spots in the 32-team field by virtue of its 19-14 record during the regular season, which included an appearance in the 2017 SEC Tournament semifinals.
The Tide's first-round opponent, Richmond, finished the season with a 20-12 overall record and a 13-5 mark in Atlantic 10 Conference play. The Spiders have won seven of their last 10 games entering the NIT.
Richmond and Alabama have met on three previous occasions in series history, with the last meeting coming nearly 30 years ago on Nov. 26, 1988 (Alabama won, 54-49). The Crimson Tide won each of the three meetings played between the two teams.
Alabama, which will make its third straight showing in the event and fifth appearance in the last seven years, will be playing in its 15th NIT in school history, which leads SEC schools. Tennessee, which made its last NIT appearance in 2013, is second with 13. Alabama is 24-17 (.585) all-time in the event. The 24 victories gives the Tide the most NIT wins among SEC schools, surpassing South Carolina's 22 wins in NIT play.
The winner of Tuesday's game will face the victor of No. 2 seed Clemson and No. 7 seed Oakland at a time and date to be determined.
Iowa is the top seed in the Crimson Tide's quadrant, while the other NIT No. 1 seeds include Syracuse, California and Illinois State.
Alabama is one of eight SEC teams to earn a berth in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT. Joining the Crimson Tide in the NIT is Ole Miss and Georgia, while Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt each earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama Earns A No. 3 Seed In 2017 National Invitation Tournament
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. ā The University of Alabama men's basketball team earned a No. 3 seed in the 2017 National Invitation Tournament and will host the No. 6 seed Richmond Spiders in Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday, March 14, in the opening round of the event. The Tide and the Spiders will tip off at 8:15 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
"We are excited about participating in the NIT for a second year in a row," head coach Avery Johnson said. "We felt we had a fantastic finish at the SEC Tournament overall in terms of winning games over Mississippi State and South Carolina. We came up a little short of beating a Kentucky team that was a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. We think we had a nice end to the year. We played with energy and improved in a lot of areas offensively. We are excited for our seniors to continue playing and happy that our younger guys will get more games in postseason play."
The Crimson Tide earned one of 22 at-large spots in the 32-team field by virtue of its 19-14 record during the regular season, which included an appearance in the 2017 SEC Tournament semifinals.
The Tide's first-round opponent, Richmond, finished the season with a 20-12 overall record and a 13-5 mark in Atlantic 10 Conference play. The Spiders have won seven of their last 10 games entering the NIT.
Richmond and Alabama have met on three previous occasions in series history, with the last meeting coming nearly 30 years ago on Nov. 26, 1988 (Alabama won, 54-49). The Crimson Tide won each of the three meetings played between the two teams.
Alabama, which will make its third straight showing in the event and fifth appearance in the last seven years, will be playing in its 15th NIT in school history, which leads SEC schools. Tennessee, which made its last NIT appearance in 2013, is second with 13. Alabama is 24-17 (.585) all-time in the event. The 24 victories gives the Tide the most NIT wins among SEC schools, surpassing South Carolina's 22 wins in NIT play.
The winner of Tuesday's game will face the victor of No. 2 seed Clemson and No. 7 seed Oakland at a time and date to be determined.
Iowa is the top seed in the Crimson Tide's quadrant, while the other NIT No. 1 seeds include Syracuse, California and Illinois State.
Alabama is one of eight SEC teams to earn a berth in either the NCAA Tournament or NIT. Joining the Crimson Tide in the NIT is Ole Miss and Georgia, while Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina and Vanderbilt each earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
Alabama Earns A No. 3 Seed In 2017 National Invitation Tournament
B
By Alex Byington Sports
Alabama to host Richmond in NIT on Tuesday
Despite a late-season push, Alabama will have to wait at least another year for a coveted invitation to the Big Dance.
Still, second-year head coach Avery Johnson isnāt ready for the Crimson Tide to go home any time soon, not when thereās more progress to be made on the court.
For the third straight season and fourth time in the last five years, Alabama (19-14) advances to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The Crimson Tide is the No. 3 seed in the Iowa quadrant and hosts No. 6-seed Richmond (20-12) in a first-round matchup at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday in Coleman Coliseum.
"I just think any postseason experience can be a place for development and continued growth for your team, if they embrace it and donāt want to go out on spring break,ā Johnson said on a teleconference late Sunday night.
This will be the fourth meeting between Alabama and Richmond, but the first since the 1988-89 season.
Last season, the Tide lost in the first round as a No. 5 seed to fourth-seeded Creighton, while Richmond entered as a No. 1 seed and advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to second-seeded Miami.
Much like Alabama, the Spiders also advanced to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament, where they lost in overtime to Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday.
While the Tide has been inconsistent this season, there have been recent signs of positive on-court improvement, including winning three of its last five games since the start of March.
āOverall, we thought like we had a really nice finish to our season, full of energy, we matured in a lot of different areas ā especially on the offensive end,ā Johnson said. āI saw better execution in terms of our spacing and ball security, and obviously weāve been a proud defensive team all year.ā
Coming off a 79-74 loss to eventual three-time conference champion Kentucky in the SEC tournament semifinal Saturday, the Tide is seeking to continue the upwards progress it showed in winning back-to-back tournament games for the first time since 2002.
āWe played well this tournament, got some good momentum going, and whatever tournament weāre in weāll be ready to play,ā Alabama junior wing Riley Norris said Saturday.
Added sophomore guard Avery Johnson Jr.: āWeāre going to stay locked in regardless of what postseason (tournament) weāre in. Because there are some teams that arenāt even playing right now and didnāt win multiple games in their tournament. So we feel like winning these last two games was a leap forward, especially once the seasonās over and going into next year.ā
While many fans are already anticipating next season, when Alabama will unveil a top 5 recruiting class that includes McDonaldās All-American guard Collin Sexton and five-star wing John Petty, Johnson isnāt quite ready to look ahead just yet.
āWe just want to make sure weāre always realistic about where we are and where weāve been,ā Johnson said. āWe obviously know whatās around the corner in terms of our recruiting class, but we have to give those kids a chance to come in and develop and grow, ā¦ and we understand we have some players coming back from this yearās team, but we want to make sure we honor our seniors, the guys that finished the year with us.ā
Decatur DailyāContinue reading...
Despite a late-season push, Alabama will have to wait at least another year for a coveted invitation to the Big Dance.
Still, second-year head coach Avery Johnson isnāt ready for the Crimson Tide to go home any time soon, not when thereās more progress to be made on the court.
For the third straight season and fourth time in the last five years, Alabama (19-14) advances to the National Invitation Tournament (NIT). The Crimson Tide is the No. 3 seed in the Iowa quadrant and hosts No. 6-seed Richmond (20-12) in a first-round matchup at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday in Coleman Coliseum.
"I just think any postseason experience can be a place for development and continued growth for your team, if they embrace it and donāt want to go out on spring break,ā Johnson said on a teleconference late Sunday night.
This will be the fourth meeting between Alabama and Richmond, but the first since the 1988-89 season.
Last season, the Tide lost in the first round as a No. 5 seed to fourth-seeded Creighton, while Richmond entered as a No. 1 seed and advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to second-seeded Miami.
Much like Alabama, the Spiders also advanced to the semifinals of the Atlantic 10 tournament, where they lost in overtime to Virginia Commonwealth on Saturday.
While the Tide has been inconsistent this season, there have been recent signs of positive on-court improvement, including winning three of its last five games since the start of March.
āOverall, we thought like we had a really nice finish to our season, full of energy, we matured in a lot of different areas ā especially on the offensive end,ā Johnson said. āI saw better execution in terms of our spacing and ball security, and obviously weāve been a proud defensive team all year.ā
Coming off a 79-74 loss to eventual three-time conference champion Kentucky in the SEC tournament semifinal Saturday, the Tide is seeking to continue the upwards progress it showed in winning back-to-back tournament games for the first time since 2002.
āWe played well this tournament, got some good momentum going, and whatever tournament weāre in weāll be ready to play,ā Alabama junior wing Riley Norris said Saturday.
Added sophomore guard Avery Johnson Jr.: āWeāre going to stay locked in regardless of what postseason (tournament) weāre in. Because there are some teams that arenāt even playing right now and didnāt win multiple games in their tournament. So we feel like winning these last two games was a leap forward, especially once the seasonās over and going into next year.ā
While many fans are already anticipating next season, when Alabama will unveil a top 5 recruiting class that includes McDonaldās All-American guard Collin Sexton and five-star wing John Petty, Johnson isnāt quite ready to look ahead just yet.
āWe just want to make sure weāre always realistic about where we are and where weāve been,ā Johnson said. āWe obviously know whatās around the corner in terms of our recruiting class, but we have to give those kids a chance to come in and develop and grow, ā¦ and we understand we have some players coming back from this yearās team, but we want to make sure we honor our seniors, the guys that finished the year with us.ā
Decatur DailyāContinue reading...
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About a month ago I put a tweet from one of our lists over here on the forum. It dealt with the rule changes in the NIT for this tourney (experimental.)
Worth the quick glance...
Basketball - NCAA experimental rules for the NIT, including team foul number resetting to zero at 10 min mark
Worth the quick glance...
Basketball - NCAA experimental rules for the NIT, including team foul number resetting to zero at 10 min mark
UNC-Greensboro at Syracuse! :rolf:
Jim Boeheim vs. UNC Greensboro is the funniest NIT matchup ever - SBNation.com
Jim Boeheim vs. UNC Greensboro is the funniest NIT matchup ever - SBNation.com
PhillyGirl
Member
HA! Just shared this on my Facebook. I'm sure my former SU coworkers/students will whine about it ..
(Gotta admit I am rooting against SU .. Go Spartans!!)
50+yeartidefan
Member
This will be a good first round test for the Tide. The Spiders of Richmond are no pushover. 4 double digit scorers will be tough to defend. Hopefully, the extra practice time and I pray, extra games will be a nice benefit to our team. CAJ has the ship turned in the right direction. Overall, this has been a good season.
BAMANEWSBOT
Staff
NIT also trying out new postseason rules
There are pluses and minuses to playing in the NIT, as Alabama head basketball coach Avery Johnson observed on Monday. The unavoidable minus is that an NIT bid means that the participating team did not make it into the NCAA Tournament. One of the positives, though, is that a team does get to continue playing ā and it doesnāt have to wait around.
Alabama vs. Richmond
āOur team had a brief meeting and my sense is that they want to play ball,ā Johnson added. āWe need to keep playing. We played Creighton (in the NIT) last year and they used their NIT experience to advance (to the NCAA Tournament) this year.ā
The game against Richmond will be a contrast of styles ā and sizes. The Spiders have just one starter ā Atlantic 10 Player of the Year T.J. Cline ā taller than 6-foot-4. Barring a lineup change from recent games, Alabama will start five players 6-5 and above, and will look to exploit the 11-rebound statistical differential (Alabama is plus-5.5 and Richmond is minus-5.5 on the season.) The Spiders, as spiders do, will attempt to make up for their lack of size with quickness and a trapping defense.
There will also be several experimental postseason rules in effect for the NIT.
Most notably, NIT rules will call for resetting total team fouls to zero at the end of 10-minute segments during each half, the NCAA said.
āThe committee believes resetting the team fouls to zero at the 9:59 mark of each half may have the same effect as resetting the team fouls to zero at the end of each quarter, while at the same time allowing for menās college basketball to retain the unique format of two 20-minute halves,ā the NCAA statement said.
After a team commits its fifth personal or technical foul in each 10-minute segment (and all fouls after that), the other team will shoot two free throws ā essentially dividing the game into four quarters when it comes to how team fouls are counted, but not changing how the game itself is is timed. The experimental rules will eliminate ā1-and-1ā free throws.
In another rule change designed to speed up play, the shot clock will be reset to 20 seconds instead of 30 seconds when the ball is in-bounded in the front court.
Free admission for first 500 students
The Alabama athletics department The University of Alabama athletics department announced on Monday that the first 500 students in attendance for Tuesday nightās game will receive free admission, courtesy of Coca-Cola.
Students are asked to come in through the West Entrance of Coleman Coliseum (regular season student entrance) and must have a valid Action Card. Similar to a normal home contest, students will have their Action Card swiped to gain entrance to the contest. All student tickets will be general admission.
Tide must adapt to Spiders' style in NIT first round | TideSports.com
There are pluses and minuses to playing in the NIT, as Alabama head basketball coach Avery Johnson observed on Monday. The unavoidable minus is that an NIT bid means that the participating team did not make it into the NCAA Tournament. One of the positives, though, is that a team does get to continue playing ā and it doesnāt have to wait around.
Alabama vs. Richmond
- When: 8:15 p.m.
- Where: NIT First Round, Coleman Coliseum
- Records: Alabama 19-14, Richmond 20-12
- TV: ESPN2
- Radio: 95.3 FM
āOur team had a brief meeting and my sense is that they want to play ball,ā Johnson added. āWe need to keep playing. We played Creighton (in the NIT) last year and they used their NIT experience to advance (to the NCAA Tournament) this year.ā
The game against Richmond will be a contrast of styles ā and sizes. The Spiders have just one starter ā Atlantic 10 Player of the Year T.J. Cline ā taller than 6-foot-4. Barring a lineup change from recent games, Alabama will start five players 6-5 and above, and will look to exploit the 11-rebound statistical differential (Alabama is plus-5.5 and Richmond is minus-5.5 on the season.) The Spiders, as spiders do, will attempt to make up for their lack of size with quickness and a trapping defense.
There will also be several experimental postseason rules in effect for the NIT.
Most notably, NIT rules will call for resetting total team fouls to zero at the end of 10-minute segments during each half, the NCAA said.
āThe committee believes resetting the team fouls to zero at the 9:59 mark of each half may have the same effect as resetting the team fouls to zero at the end of each quarter, while at the same time allowing for menās college basketball to retain the unique format of two 20-minute halves,ā the NCAA statement said.
After a team commits its fifth personal or technical foul in each 10-minute segment (and all fouls after that), the other team will shoot two free throws ā essentially dividing the game into four quarters when it comes to how team fouls are counted, but not changing how the game itself is is timed. The experimental rules will eliminate ā1-and-1ā free throws.
In another rule change designed to speed up play, the shot clock will be reset to 20 seconds instead of 30 seconds when the ball is in-bounded in the front court.
Free admission for first 500 students
The Alabama athletics department The University of Alabama athletics department announced on Monday that the first 500 students in attendance for Tuesday nightās game will receive free admission, courtesy of Coca-Cola.
Students are asked to come in through the West Entrance of Coleman Coliseum (regular season student entrance) and must have a valid Action Card. Similar to a normal home contest, students will have their Action Card swiped to gain entrance to the contest. All student tickets will be general admission.
Tide must adapt to Spiders' style in NIT first round | TideSports.com
Another year another NIT berth...
While we would all rather have them in the NCAA tourney, at least they get to continue playing unlike that team in West Georgia sitting at home at 18-14.
In addition, unlike previous trips to the NIT, the team appears to be on the rise with a skrong recruiting class coming in. I may be wearing my crimson colored glasses, but basketball future looks brighter for the first time in a while.
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