No. 5 Alabama’s time in Nashville ended early, as the team beat Kentucky on Friday but lost to Florida on Saturday in the SEC Tournament. Here is the good, the bad and the ugly from the Crimson Tide in the two games.
The good
Mouhamed Dioubate and Jarin Stevenson. In his press conference on Wednesday before heading to Nashville, head coach Nate Oats said he wanted to see more from the two forwards and challenged them to bring it in the tournament.
That’s precisely what they did. In the 99-70 win over Kentucky, Dioubate had 13 points on eight rebounds and swatted two shots, and Stevenson had 16 points and went 3/5 from downtown while snagging three steals.
“I think we did a good job,” Dioubate said. “Jarin stepped up. He had a lot of big buckets, and I feel like it’s gonna help us transition to the next few games.”
Although the duo wasn’t as effective in the 104-82 loss to Florida, Dioubate still had a double-double with 12 points and 12 rebounds on 5/5 shooting, and Stevenson chipped in 10 points. If the two keep playing effectively, Alabama will be a tough out in the NCAA Tournament.
Domination over Kentucky. It wouldn’t be crazy to call the Crimson Tide’s play against the Wildcats the best it has been all season, as the team dominated both sides of the ball.
On the offensive end, five different Alabama players scored double-digit points, and guard Labaron Philon perhaps had his best effort of the year with 21 points, four assists and three steals. The Crimson Tide shot 50.7% from the field and 37.9% on 3s against the Kentucky defense.
On the defensive side, Alabama delivered a stellar effort, holding the Wildcats to a 37.5% field-goal percentage and 26.3% from behind the arc. The Crimson Tide also forced 16 turnovers from Kentucky.
“We wanted to turn up our defensive intensity, and I thought we did,” Oats said.
The bad
Slumping Mark Sears. Although the past two game results have been wildly different, one consistency was the struggling play of Alabama’s leading scorer.
In the two losses, the guard has only averaged 11 points and struggled mightily with his shot, shooting 29.6% from the field and making only one out of his 12 3-point attempts. Coming off a hot end to the regular season, Sears must turn up his play if he wants to lead the Crimson Tide to another Final Four run.
The ugly
Second half against Florida. It’s hard to imagine that the same team that outscored Kentucky by 22 in the final 20 minutes would follow up the next day by allowing Florida to do the same by 20 in the second half.
A component of the collapse was forward Grant Nelson not playing in the second half after leaving the first half due to injury, which led to the Crimson Tide being outmatched in the paint. The Gators had 18 paint points in the half compared to just 10 for Alabama.
The overall play was poor. The guards were outmatched by Florida, and the Crimson Tide shot only 34.4% from the field in the period compared to the Gators’ 55% and 50% from 3-point range.
Florida’s 17-2 run with 14 minutes to go in the half sent the Crimson Tide spiraling, and Oats said the effort was a problem and needs to be fixed going forward.
“Our players are going to have to really determine how bad they want to make a run, because it’s truly player-led more than anything,” Oats said. “With the effort and the toughness I saw in the second half tonight, it’s not going to get us very far.”
No. 2 seeded Alabama will shift its focus now to the NCAA Tournament, with the first-round matchup being against No. 15 seeded Robert Morris in Cleveland, Ohio. The time of tipoff has yet to be set.
