| MBB/WBB No. 1/1 Auburn Topples Alabama Tuesday Night, 100-81

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama will play the second of its current stretch of three consecutive top-5 ranked opponents when it travels to Auburn, Ala., to take on the No. 1/T1 Auburn Tigers Tuesday night at 8 p.m. CT on ESPN. It marks the second meeting this year between the rivals as the Tide fell to then-No. 4/4 Auburn, 81-77, Jan. 11 in Tuscaloosa.

This will be the 12th time Alabama takes on the nation's No. 1 team according to the Associated Press, holding a 4-7 record in those contests. The last time the Crimson Tide defeated the nation's top-ranked team came in a 70-67 win over Stanford in the second round of the 2004 NCAA Tournament (3/20/04). Alabama's last regular season victory over a No. 1 team came on Jan. 8, 1994 in a 66-64 home victory over Arkansas. Finally, the Tide's only road win over a No. 1 team in program history came at UCLA on Jan. 28, 1982.

Coming off an 87-78 victory over then-No. 4 Baylor last Saturday afternoon in the Big 12/SEC Challenge, Alabama improved to 3-0 against teams that played in last year's NCAA Final Four. The Tide also defeated then-No. 3 Gonzaga (91-82 in Seattle) and then-No. 14 Houston (83-82 in Tuscaloosa.

The Broadcast​

  • Tuesday's game will be available on ESPN with Karl Ravech (play-by-play), Jay Bilas (analyst) and Marty Smith (analyst) on the call
  • The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call, while Tom Stipe (engineer) is turning the dials. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.



 
@Bammerboy321
you can't call out one guy and say he was terrible, because everyone had their terrible moments. Shackleford got hot, Quinnerly got hot, but they were most of the issue last night since the ball goes through them. Davidson was nowhere to be found and showed he's not in the same league as a draft worthy Freshman. Bediako played well to me. He's 100 pounds soaking wet and battled all night long. He's coming along. Ellis had a rough game, but his heart makes up for a lot. The refs popped him for some VERY tit for tat stuff. Miles messed up big on that travel, but we gotta pick him up and quit turning the ball over right after we get a stop from our guards.

We showed we could play. We are a tournament team. We can make a run, but we knew last night was gonna be rough. I just didn't expect a pillow fight from the damn refs.
I didn't just call out JD (although is may have seemed like it, so I apologize). But to have a guard with an important role like him have 0 points and 0 rebounds is not helpful one bit.

But plenty of guys struggled. It turned into just Shack and JQ trying to carry the team, and it ended up failing miserably after we got the score within 4. Honestly, it was after Miles had three consecutive bad plays that Auburn went on a run and blew the game wide open. And then Auburn just began winning individual matchups against Rojas, JD, Gurley, and even Keon.

I don't fault them. Like I said before, this Auburn team is loaded and well coached. Last night was going to have to take a total team effort to win and it didn't happen unfortunately. But I did think our overall energy was good until the game was well in hand. It was good to see us fight back.
 
You might be looking to far with Bama and better players. Pearl only signed one HS player and nailed the transfer portal for the rest.

Nate didn't do so well in the portal for this cycle. If JD is an NBA player, then about every player on the Bama team is as well.
We kind of got the bad end of the deal with Nimari Burnett going out early. Our defense likely wouldn't struggle this much with him out there. As far as better players, Brandon Miller is one and done prospect. He'll have freshman moments undoubtedly, but he's going to the NBA. Jaden Bradley is more of the guard we need. The one big thing I hope for is for JQ to come back so we when we sub him out, we can sub in Bradley and have no drop off in guards who have superior handles and great court vision. Auburn has three or four really good facilitators. We have one.

Gurley for all intended purposes was a homerun get. Both Arkansas and Auburn wanted him and Nate recruited him well to come here. It is what it is, but he just isn't a good fit.

But you're correct - Oats will have to adapt to the new world of CBB and grab transfers that can make immediate impacts. He's gotten Bruner and JQ, so there's definitely hope he can land better players.
 
I didn't just call out JD (although is may have seemed like it, so I apologize). But to have a guard with an important role like him have 0 points and 0 rebounds is not helpful one bit.

But plenty of guys struggled. It turned into just Shack and JQ trying to carry the team, and it ended up failing miserably after we got the score within 4. Honestly, it was after Miles had three consecutive bad plays that Auburn went on a run and blew the game wide open. And then Auburn just began winning individual matchups against Rojas, JD, Gurley, and even Keon.

I don't fault them. Like I said before, this Auburn team is loaded and well coached. Last night was going to have to take a total team effort to win and it didn't happen unfortunately. But I did think our overall energy was good until the game was well in hand. It was good to see us fight back.

I agree with them fighting. I do wonder if that was only because of the crap talking from the back and forths rather than fighting for Alabama and playing the game.

We got back to being that same team that lost to Missouri, Memphis, and Georgia that was careless with the ball and gave minimum effort as a whole. It was great Shackleford kept us in it early, but he also turned the ball over. It was nice to see Quinnerly get hot in the second half, but it didn't erase the first half. It went back to the Alabama team that lost to inferior teams and I just can't understand how that happens when you're playing #1. It was the first game against a top opponent that I feel like we didn't have that fire. All that being said, I do believe the refs had something to do with the effort as we were getting whistled for every dawgone thing last night. We did make the mistake of not getting into the bodies of their big men and attempting to hit floaters and fade aways against guys that have that reach. Kessler is good, but he isn't that damn good where he wasn't going to commit a foul if you ran right at him. There is no way he could have gotten into position if we handle the ball properly and go at him and also work on the dump off. Auburn killed us with that exact formula.
 
Just a quick calculation of why it is so hard to win on the road. In Bama's 11 true home games they are averaging 23.82 Free Throws attempted per game while their Opponents are attempting 17.64 per game. On the road, Bama is attempting 19.5 Free Throws per game compared to 31.17 by their opponents. In neutral court games (I did count Gonzaga and Davidson as neutral court since they weren't technically at home arenas) Bama averages 17.6 FT attempts and their opponents are averaging 17.6 attempts as well.

Hopefully the neutral courts of the SEC tournament and the NCAA tournament will keep things a little more even and consistent on that front.
 
handle the ball properly and go at him and also work on the dump off. Auburn killed us with that exact formula.
Yeah this is the point in the in game thread I said Pearl was outcoaching Oats and making him look like a high school coach. Of course that was said when I was frustrated at what I was seeing and the team did much better for half of the 2nd half defending that but in the end you have to do it fo 60 minutes.

Best thing from that game is Quinerly shot much better and has for the last two games. Hopefully he is getting dialed in. With most teams having Shackelford and Quinerly locked will result in W's but the better competition is going to need Ellis/Gurley/JD etc... playing better.
 
The season is getting long in the tooth. What’s you guys lean on JD going pro? He’s averaging 8.6, 4.4 and 4.1. He’s scored double digits 8 times but 5 or less 7 times. I don’t know enough about the rest of the kids going to the draft to know how that stacks up. But to my untrained eye, he’d not get drafted.

He is NOT ready to even think about going to the NBA. If he does, he will end up in the G-League. Not a good option at all IMO.
 
I have come to realize the entirety of the players Bama lost from last season’s amazing squad were much more important than I had thought. And so far the entirety of the players who returned plus the new additions have been much less productive than I had imagined they’d be. Certain players such as Shackelford and to a lesser extent Quinerly are the exceptions but on an individual basis. Everyone keeps saying this team can go far in tournament play but that’s become less certain in my mind. Leadership and chemistry take talent much farther than talent alone can. Otherwise, Duke and Kentucky would alternate winning NC’s all of the time.
 
I have come to realize the entirety of the players Bama lost from last season’s amazing squad were much more important than I had thought. And so far the entirety of the players who returned plus the new additions have been much less productive than I had imagined they’d be. Certain players such as Shackelford and to a lesser extent Quinerly are the exceptions but on an individual basis. Everyone keeps saying this team can go far in tournament play but that’s become less certain in my mind. Leadership and chemistry take talent much farther than talent alone can. Otherwise, Duke and Kentucky would alternate winning NC’s all of the time.
I am with you on this, I have reset expectations big time. I am encouraged that Quinerly has had a couple of good games. Hoping he and Shackelford can continue playing well and we can get at least one more player like JD or Ellis to elevate and Bediako to improve in the paint. I thought Bediako actually had one of his best games down in the cow pasture.
 
I knew about them trying to do the crane! But I didn't know till I saw it on You Tube them sing Rammer Jammer. but their way? Did not listen to them hacking it up!
 
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