🏀 Bama basketball beats Tennessee 56-38

[doemasters]

Nice win on the road - Roll Tide

 

[bama alum]

To go into Knoxvegas as the dog and not only come out with the win but to also hold UTurd to less than 40...RTR!

 

[alabama mike]

The young men played outstanding defense Sat. afternoon in the ville. The offensive side still has some flow issues bit it was a nice road win.

 

[Bamabww]

Alabama ends road woes with win against Tennessee

Cecil Hurt
TideSports.com Columnist

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. | For the first time in nearly two years, the University of Alabama basketball team took a road game by the throat and didn't let go.

The Crimson Tide snapped its long road losing streak in convincing fashion Saturday, stifling the Tennessee Volunteers, 56-38, for their sixth straight win.

Alabama had dropped 16 straight road games, 12 straight in the SEC, but truncated that streak decisively, holding UT to its lowest scoring output ever in Thompson-Boling Arena.

"When you get a road win in this league," UA head coach Anthony Grant said, "you cherish it."

Tennessee (9-5, 1-1 SEC) took a 36-35 lead on a pair of Derek Reese free throws with 13:39 remaining when the Alabama defense took over. The Crimson Tide held UT scoreless over the next 13 minutes and five seconds, closing the game on a dominant 21-2 run.

"I don't think we did anything differently in our zone," Grant said. "Our guys just did a great job. Earlier in the half, (Josh) Richardson was hurting us but we did a better job of identifying him and our understanding of what we wanted to do was excellent."

"It got ugly, it got stagnant," Tennessee head coach Donnie Tyndall said. "When they went zone we had a couple of good looks and missed them and then our guys got back on their heels. But give Alabama credit. They are long, they are athletic and they do a good job of making you shoot over the top of that. Then there were a couple of times where we drove the ball to the rim but their size made us take what I call "hope shots," where you just throw it up there and hope it goes in.

"It didn't."

As the Alabama defense kept Tennessee from scoring, that also prevented the Volunteers from applying their pressing defense.

"We couldn't press because we couldn't score, so then we weren't getting easy baskets off the press," Richardson said.

The Crimson Tide (12-3, 2-0 SEC) was balanced offensively, although all of its scoring came from its five starters. UA had 15 assists on its 20 baskets.

"As a team, we moved the ball well," said Rodney Cooper, who led UA with 17 points and a career-high five assists. "When we do that, we get great shots. We just relied on our hard work in practice."

Cooper also shrugged off questions about breaking the long road losing streak.

"That was mainly last year," he said. "We aren't focused on last year, we're focused on this year."

Ricky Tarrant added 14 points for UA. Sophomore center Jimmie Taylor added 13.

"Jimmie was 5-for-5 from the field, 3-for-4 from the line, blocked two shots (and) probably altered 10 more," Grant said. "He was able to score but he affects the game in ways that don't show up in the boxscore."

Richardson led Tennessee with 17 points, but did not score in the final 16:50 of the game.

Alabama hits the road again on Tuesday to take on South Carolina in Columbia, S.C.

https://alabama.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1724105

 

[psychojoe]

A really good win, against a team that has beaten Kansas State at their place and beaten Butler. Now that we have that monkey off our back, the next one up is South Carolina at Columbia. Another road win would really be nice.

USCe game is Tuesday night at 8 CST. ESPNU has the telecast.

 

[TheChief]

PJ, have you watched USCe play yet? How do you beat Ok State, Clemson, and Iowa State and yet lose to Charlotte and Akron?

What do they have? Ole Miss beat them bad, but maybe Missy is just that good.

 

[TheChief]

Looks like USC struggled shooting threes. They failed to handle full-court pressure. They were tied at 33 with the Rebels and couldn't finish.

Seems like teams that press cannot handle the press, Tennessee included. This could be a good opportunity to revenge blowing a big lead against the Gamecocks last season.

 

[psychojoe]

I have not seen the Gamecocks yet. I know that Frank Martin is one tough hombre, and expect them to play aggressive and physical defense. Ole Miss can play with anyone when they are shooting the three well. They nearly took down UK in Lexington. I don't remember seeing us play well at USC. Sindarius Thornwell is their best player, a 6'5 swing man who can shoot the three and take it to the basket. There inside players are Chetkevicius, Carerra and Kacinas, all from overseas. They are sound, fundamentally inside, though not especially quick.

 

[TheChief]

Their game with Ole Miss was replayed last night. I didn't watch it.... I suppose we'll see tonight, but USC's results are puzzling.

I think the Tide is playing with a bit of a chip on its shoulder, and I LOVE IT!!! No more brooding on the sidelines by Grant. This team's attitude seems much different than the last two or three. I still wish we had that one sure-fire quality win, but there's really no use looking backward. In the SEC it looks like the Tide will do pretty well.

 

[psychojoe]

Chief, I think that a lot of the difference is that without slow wide bodies like Jacobs and Engstrom we have gone back to playing to our quickness and athleticism. Even though I was a huge Trevor Releford fan, Tarrant is much quicker with the basketball. Coleman is a work in progress at this level, but he too is very quick.