| MBB/WBB 🏀 #5 Alabama at #10 Texas A&M - (Sears game high 27 leads Tide to 94-88 win over A&M)

[mando]

How was that game even close? Bama offense is soooo much better than A&M. Killed them on the boards. No way this should have been anything but a double digit win. Oh yeah I guess late turnovers, 2nd half D let downs AND ridiculous number of fouls called on both teams but certainly on against Bama.

Any road win is a great win. One against a quality top 10 team is impressive. This teams offense and depth are really good. If they can get the D cleaned up theses games turn into double digit wins. D in the 2nd half just struggles for some reason.

 

[BamaFan334]

I know we shot 68% but they missed 20 FT's.

We missed 13. I just don't consider it the reason we won, because we simply did just as bad, they just had eight more tries to do worse percentage wise. Pretty close until Sears and Youngblood hit that last few, which were huge. We passed up a lot of threes only to turn it over under the basket. That got me pretty mad. Admitting I had money on the game at -3, I am a little more emotionally about it being so close there, ha ha.

 

[Bammerboy321]

Absolute biggest win was getting Cliff back. Still isn't as dominant on D as I'd hope but he's taking HUGE strides offensively and on the glass. Thought we lost him for a while there.

 

[Bammerboy321]

He can be frustrating as hell at times but he's still likely my favorite player here

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

 

[rick4bama]

Who got the Hard Hat?

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

Who got the Hard Hat?

Stevenson.

 

[UAgrad93]

ESPN players of the game- the men in stripes!!! 88 FTs in a game!!! HOLY SHIT!!!

 

[50+yeartidefan]

Thought was worse officiated game ever. But. Wrong. Have seen it called one way like that But this one was awful.
Guys in stripes thought everyone came to watch them

 

[alabama mike]

15 point lead with7 something to play and we let them right back in the game with turnovers and bad shots. Thankfully our young men answered th call and stepped up when it mattered. Our defense was lacking overall but I contribute that to the refs. People do not pay good money to Watch a ref show and that’s what it was. Goodness gracious!

 

[TerryP]

I think things are still in flux with the upgrades and such.

Is the game chat not attached to this thread? Thought it would be like football.

Different script/software

 

[50+yeartidefan]

15 point lead with7 something to play and we let them right back in the game with turnovers and bad shots. Thankfully our young men answered th call and stepped up when it mattered. Our defense was lacking overall but I contribute that to the refs. People do not pay good money to Watch a ref show and that’s what it was. Goodness gracious!

Yep. Hard to play good D when every touch foul is called. Refs were crap.

 

[UAgrad93]

15 point lead with7 something to play and we let them right back in the game with turnovers and bad shots. Thankfully our young men answered th call and stepped up when it mattered. Our defense was lacking overall but I contribute that to the refs. People do not pay good money to Watch a ref show and that’s what it was. Goodness gracious!

Hard to play solid defense when the interpretation of what was a foul changed every time down the floor. Also, you play more tentatively when you’re on the floor with 3 or 4 fouls. You don’t play as tight and you don’t challenge each shot. I hated those games as a player in HS and hated them even more as a coach, often earning a technical foul for voicing my displeasure.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

 

[PurlJam]

I believe these refs had that "you can call holding on every play mentality" in football to "a foul on every possession" In basketball. They were beyond suck. Still a solid win on the road against a top 10.

 

[Bammerboy321]

That was one tough ass rebound by Stevenson. How he got that pass to Sears I will never know.

 

[mando]

That was one tough ass rebound by Stevenson. How he got that pass to Sears I will never know.

I know a lot of people have been down on Stevenson but he is slowly improving and is playing better basketball. Oats seems to look to him to provide D on one of the other teams best offensive players. Has some versatility on defense with his length.

 

[PurlJam]

I know a lot of people have been down on Stevensons but he is slowly improving and is playing better basketball. Oats seems to look to him to provide D on one of the other teams best offensive players. Has some versatility on defense with his length.

As long as he quits trying to shoot 3s.

 

[Brandon Van de Graaff]

The guys really dialed it in a little as conference play began, which is what we hoped to see. Sears seems to be past that early season rut he was in in terms of shooting... still some silly/unnecessary turnovers, but overall, it looks like he's recalibrated himself and playing with confidence again. Youngblood is still not 100% yet but he showed last night what he can do and he will only get better. I can't find the stat I saw on Stevenson from the other day, but it basically showed that when he's in the lineup the defensive numbers are better overall... which is why he's getting so many minutes despite some of his shooting issues... though I think he will be fine offensively (2 games in a row now he's won the hard hat points). Omoruyi is getting used to the pace and flow and starting to get more comfortable too. Nelson plays his ass off.

As a team, in the 3 conference games, they are shooting 35.3% from 3. That's up from 30.6% in the non-conference. It's a small sample size with just 3 games, but still, a promising trend.

They really need to get the free throw shooting improved and defend without fouling as much. Both of those are issues that continue to linger...

 

[Bammerboy321]

I know a lot of people have been down on Stevensons but he is slowly improving and is playing better basketball. Oats seems to look to him to provide D on one of the other teams best offensive players. Has some versatility on defense with his length.

He's all in on defense right now. Thinking he's molding more and more into what we saw with Clowney. If we remember too, Clowney had a pretty bad dry spell offensively, but made up for it down under.