In the past week, No. 2 Alabama went 1-1, beating Texas on the road Tuesday before losing to No. 1 Auburn on Saturday in one of the most significant matchups of the college basketball season.
In the showdown with Texas, Alabama put on a performance and easily secured the 103-80 win, largely due to Jarin Stevenson’s season-high 22 points.
Three other Crimson Tide players also scored double digits, including guard Mark Sears and forward.
Mouhamed Dioubate scored 13 points on 3/3 shooting from 3. Aden Holloway and Labaron Philon both secured their highest points totals since late January.
The Crimson Tide’s offensive performance was stellar. Fans saw the team’s shooting performance rise after a 4-point win at Arkansas in which the team shot 54.8% from the field.
Alabama managed a 61.8% field goal rate as well as a 58.6% rate from long range.
This performance helped Alabama secure its 103-80 victory over Texas, a blowout that could have happened against Arkansas if the Crimson Tide had shot better from on 3s.
“This was a game that I wish you could shoot it like this all the time. I know we shot almost 60% from 3, shot 62% from the field,” head coach Nate Oats said.
Alabama’s field goal rate against the Razorbacks was 54.8%, which was 7% less than that of the Texas game. On top of that, the Crimson Tide only had a 26.3% 3-point rate by the end of the game, and it could be felt late in the game as Arkansas pulled back.
After defeating Texas, the second-ranked Crimson Tide basketball geared up for a matchup against No. 1 Auburn. It was a significant point in SEC basketball history, as the first time in the conference that the No. 1 and No. 2 teams met.
Alabama played its worst game of the season, seeing every shooting category slide completely downhill as the team lost 94-85.
At times it felt like the Crimson Tide could not get a shot to fall, as it shot 38.6% from the field on 70 field goal attempts.
From 3, it got even worse — Alabama crumbled from behind the arc and shot a season-low 19.2%. Out of 26 three-point attempts, only five fell.
“They did a great job, I thought, on their defensive end, trying to take away our 3s. We didn’t shoot it very well, but they contested them,” Oats said. “They’re a good team, both sides of the ball. We’ve gotta get better.”
Rebounds and turnovers have been consistent issues, but not this time. Alabama out-rebounded Auburn by nine and kept turnovers to only six.
“But it’s other stuff,” Oats said. “We stressed the turnovers, the rebounds.”
Alabama seemed to have fixed consistent issues, but its extremely poor shooting performance led to its demise.
The Crimson Tide will look to bounce back on Wednesday as it travels to Missouri to take on the No. 21-ranked Tigers at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
