Alabama basketball finished last week with a record of 2-0, taking wins over No. 14 Mississippi State on Wednesday and Georgia on Saturday.
The Crimson Tide is now on a five-game winning streak and has stayed consistent since its disappointing loss to then-No. 21 Ole Miss on Jan. 14.
Alabama struggled with turnovers that game, and the issue has still festered. However, great defensive and shooting performances have helped Alabama add to its win column.
To begin this two-week stretch, Alabama played Vanderbilt in Coleman Coliseum on Jan. 21. The Crimson Tide won 103-87, giving the team its sixth 100-point game of the season.
Alabama’s 56.3% field goal percentage against the Commodores was in part due to forward Mouhamed Dioubate and guard Aden Holloway combining for 44 points and shooting 20/26. Dioubate won the blue-collar hard hat after the game for his strong effort on both sides of the ball. He made a defensive statement, with eight defensive rebounds, two blocks and a steal.
After that, Alabama hosted LSU on Jan. 25. The Crimson Tide secured its 17th win of the season, 80-73, with Holloway atop the points category yet again with 22.
Alabama’s defense headlined the game after a slight step back in a shooting. The team finished with a field goal percentage of 44.3% and a 3-point percentage of 30.4%. Guard Mark Sears was held scoreless in the first half and saw no playing time in the second.
“We made the point that we’re going to start the guys that we think give us the best chance to get a great start in the second half,” Oats said.
Committing 14 turnovers did not help Alabama’s efforts, especially since the team was already not shooting well. Turnovers have been a consistent issue for the Crimson Tide, and they have continued into yet another game this season.
On Wednesday, Alabama traveled to Starkville to play No. 14 Mississippi State, securing another win 88-84 but committing 14 more turnovers.
A new leading scorer, guard Chris Youngblood, helped the Crimson Tide attain a 44.8% 3-point completion rate against the Bulldogs and a 49.2% field goal percentage. Youngblood scored a season-high 23 points shooting 7/10 on 3-pointers and 2/4 on free throws. He also only committed one of the team’s 14 turnovers.
“I thought Chris stepped up, maybe did the best job out of anybody,” Oats said.
In Alabama’s 90-69 win over Georgia on Saturday, Sears committed half of the team’s turnovers but recovered and wound up the team’s leading scorer, notching 20 points and getting back to what fans were used to seeing.
Sears also contributed six assists and five rebounds, although the team still had an issue with turnovers. The team had 20 turnovers in total, with Sears accounting for 6.
“I thought we played really hard, outrebounded a really good team by 16,” Oats said. “[Sears] still scored 20 even though we had 20 turnovers. We got to fix turnovers.”
The Crimson Tide returned to its standard shooting performance as a team, hitting 52.6% on field goals and 42.3% from 3.
The defensive performance also stood out. In the game against Mississippi State, Alabama recorded 41 rebounds overall, and against Georgia, 43 rebounds were grabbed just on the defensive side of the ball.
That was all possible due to three big men — forward Grant Nelson, who had nine defensive rebounds; center Clifford Omoruyi, who had seven; and forward Aiden Sherrell, who also had seven.
Nelson was also the second-leading scorer and one of five players with double-digit points.
Alabama fans can hope these stellar performances continue as Alabama will play at Arkansas on Saturday on ESPN at 7 p.m. CT.