Alabama vs. Auburn: B'ball Grades

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From Our Correspondent at FM 90.7

The T word is a word that gets thrown around a lot in college basketball, and it was certainly in full effect on Wednesday night. No, the T word is not Tuscaloosa or Tiger. It is not team, travel, timeout, or technical. Nor is it Tony, Ty, Trevor, or Taylor. Heck, it’s not even tree or Toomer, though one could argue otherwise, as Auburn fans finally had an excuse to come to Tuscaloosa since the Tree Poisoning Heard Round The World. No, the T word two nights ago was trap, as in “Boy, with games coming up at Ole Miss and at Florida, a bad Auburn team coming to Tuscaloosa could be a real trap game for Alabama.”

A loss surely would have dashed all remaining hopes for an at-large berth to the Big Dance. And for most of the game, it looked like that was going to be the case. Alabama couldn’t buy a bucket, and the only thing keeping them remotely close was their defense. But with .3 seconds remaining, Jamychal Green scored his only field goal of the second half, and possibly the biggest of his career, tipping in a missed layup by Tony Mitchell that put Alabama up 51-49 and sent a sold-out Coleman Coliseum into a frenzy

To put it simply, Auburn is a terrible basketball team. They boast a 2-11 record in the SEC and a 9-18 record overall that includes losses to UNC-Asheville, Samford, Jacksonville, Presbyterian, and the Fighting Camels of Campbell University who currently stand at 6-12 in Atlantic Sun play. The Tigers have an RPI of 271 out of 345 teams in Division 1 play, and earlier this season put up 6, that’s right, 6 points in the first half against LSU. So why, then, was Auburn able to play Alabama so close, and even hold a lead for most of them game?

Give credit to first-year coach Tony Barbee and the rest of his staff. They put together a defensive game plan that took away Alabama’s inside game and forced them to shoot jump shots, the one glaring weakness on this otherwise strong Crimson Tide team. Whenever the ball was in the hands of one of the Tide’s big men down low, there were always 2 or 3 blue jerseys on him, forcing a tough shot, or a pass back out to the perimeter. When asked afterwards about his defensive strategy, Barbee said it was simply, “Play zone and hope they miss.”

The downside to this aggressive approach, however, was the foul trouble it got the Tigers in. Auburn committed 5 personal fouls in the first 3:30 of play and by the end of the night, the Tigers had racked up a grand total of 29 fouls and watched 4 players leave the game. This left Auburn playing guys who more than likely would not start for anybody in the SEC for the last 2:30 of the game, and Alabama was able to put together a late 17-6 run capped off by Green’s tip-in to win the game.

Tide coach Anthony Grant summed it up best in his post game press conference. “Sometimes,” the second-year coach said, “we need these near-death experiences.” Perhaps Alabama was peeking around the corner to next Tuesday when they’ll travel to Gainesville to take on the 13^th ranked Gators. Or maybe just to Saturday and their showdown with the Ole Miss Rebels in Oxford. Either way, Alabama got the win they needed, and did what the football team could not: send the Auburn Tigers back to Lee County with the sound of Rammer Jammer ringing in their ears.

Here are my grades for Wednesday night’s game:

Offense: C-

Cecil Hurt may have had the quote of the game. Earlier that night, ESPN’s Pat Forde had said, on Twitter, “The end of Kansas State-Nebraska (is) setting basketball back 2 million years” to which Hurt responded, “If true, then Alabama-Auburn was played two minutes after The Big Bang.” The Crimson Tide were a woeful 11/42 from the field for 26.2%. JaMychal Green led all scorers with 17, while Tony Mitchell contributed 8, and Andrew Steele adding 7.

The only thing keeping the offense from a failing grade was their free-throw shooting. Alabama got to the line 40 times and converted 27 of those chances, good for 67.5%. While 67.5% is not where Coach Anthony Grant wants his team shooting night in and night out, those 27 points from the charity stripe made up over half of Alabama’s scoring and cannot be ignored.

Freshman Trevor Releford had the worst night, statistically, of his young career, with only 4 points, 0 assists, and 4 turnovers.

Chris Hines contributed 6 points, while Charles Hankerson, Charvez Davis, and Senario Hillman each had 3.

Defense: A

This team will go only as far as their defense carries them. Alabama is third in the country in field goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 37% on the year and fifth in points allowed per game at 58.2. Wednesday night, the defense did its job.

            On a night where their offense struggled mightily, Alabama’s defense bailed them out yet again. ‘Bama forced 18 turnovers, got 8 steals and blocked 6 shots. Auburn shot just under 43% for the game, but the defense locked down when it mattered most, holding the Tigers to just 26% in the second half.

JaMychal Green led the team in blocks, with 4, and steals, with 2. Chris Hines contributed 2 steals and 1 block as well as 3 defensive rebounds.

Coaching: B-

            Alabama came out flat at the beginning of the game, allowing Auburn to jump out to a 14-6 run and the Crimson Tide did not make a field goal until the 12:05 mark of the first half. While some of these struggles can be directed towards the players, the coach has to take some of the responsibility, and that’s exactly what Anthony Grant did. After the game, Grant said that at halftime, “I think the first thing I heard from the assistants when I went back to the locker room was, `Shades of St. Peter's.'”

            Give credit to this coaching staff. After the rough start that Alabama got off to, it would have been easy for a team to mail it in and try again next time. Grant, however, kept his players heads in the game and they were able to grind out the victory. It was the will to win that impressed me the most, something that this team has lacked over the last 4 or 5 years.

Where do we go from here?

            For yet another example of how bad Auburn is, consider this: Coming into Wednesday night’s game, Alabama had an RPI of 77. However, at the end of the night, Alabama’s RPI was 80. How could that be possible? Teams can’t move down in the RPI rankings after a loss, right? While that is correct, a quick glance at the scoreboard shows that Kentucky had lost at Arkansas. Because the win at home against Kentucky was so big for Alabama, and because Auburn is such a terrible team, Kentucky losing actually hurt ‘Bama more than beating Auburn helped them. It’s a wild, wild world in college basketball. Good thing the football rankings make perfect sense, right? But I digress…

            What remains for Alabama is a three game stretch that could very well decide their NCAA tournament fate. Ole Miss, Florida, and Georgia are all teams ranked in the top-100 RPI, something the tournament selection committee takes very heavily into account. The first order of business, however, is to win in Oxford, something that hasn’t come easy for teams as of late. We saw what happened when Alabama came unprepared against one of the worst teams in the country, and I have a feeling the Rebels won’t be so forgiving. If they can take care of business against Ole Miss, which Alabama very well can, and should, then a showdown in Gainesville that could determine the regular season SEC champion awaits them. Buckle up your seat belts, it’s gonna be a wild ride.

Marc Torrence, from Franklin, TN, is a freshman at The Capstone majoring in Telecommunication and Film . He is co-host of the sports-talk show "The Student Section" on Wednesday nights from 8-10 on 90.7 in Tuscaloosa, or online at thecapstone.ua.edu.