The Crimson Tide women’s basketball team played two preseason exhibition games this month to prepare for the upcoming season. With a 91-71 win over Florida State on Oct. 16 and a 93-44 win over West Florida on Sunday, the Crimson Tide is in a solid spot heading into Monday’s season opener against Stetson.
Here are some takeaways and notes from the two exhibitions.
Recuperating the losses from last year
With the loss of guards Sarah Ashlee Barker, Zaay Green and Aaliyah Nye last year, the Crimson Tide lost 49.1 points per game, 6.3 3-pointers per game and three 36%-plus 3-point shooters. Their offensive absence is hard to ignore, and the biggest question going into the year is how the team will cope with those losses.
“It’s going to come by committee. I don’t think that it’ll be one or two or three just replacing those big three,” head coach Kristy Curry said in a press conference last Friday. “It’s somebody else’s turn, and they step up.”
Across all incoming players, including transfers like seniors Ta’Mia Scott and Waiata Jennings and freshmen like Lourdes Da Silva Costa, the Crimson Tide has made up for 34 points a game. It’ll be interesting to see how the production of such a dynamic big three is distributed into a “come by committee” playstyle.
Defensive intensity
It’s hard to gauge the significance of defensive stats in the preseason and the early season in general, since teams aren’t in their peak form and oftentimes large programs are matching up against athletic inferiors. With that being said, this Crimson Tide team paired disciplinary excellence on the offensive end with high turnover rate on the defensive — it won the turnover battle 14-23 in Game 1 and 14-32 in Game 2 — and it began with the team’s overall upbeat attitude.
“It’s a group that’s hungry. They play with a tremendous amount of energy,” Curry said.
Fans will have to watch to see if the pressure keeps up. Curry’s squad ran a notable amount of a 1-2-2 press and even some diamond press looks, which worked well against West Florida but might not be sustainable for Power Four and SEC opponents.
Keeping a watch on the 3-point shooting
The 3-point line is a massive factor in Alabama’s offensive system. More than just being willing to put them up, the Crimson Tide is capable of making them, demonstrated by its finishing top 3 in 3-point percentage two of the previous three seasons.
The game against Florida State continued this trend, as the team shot 10/22 from downtown, and senior Karly Weathers led the way with a 3-7 outing. Against West Florida, however, that 45.4% mark went down to 17.4% on almost identical volume. Such low efficiency is uncharacteristic and almost surely an outlier; 45% is far above the 38.5% clip the team hit on average last year, but 17% is far below.
Interior presence
The Crimson Tide boasts a roster replete with size, with four players listed at 6-foot-4 or above, but an uptempo pace with drive-and-kick principles can sometimes lead to teams forgetting about their bigs.
In the exhibition against West Florida, the shot chart featured a high emphasis on 3s in the opening quarters — 9 of 18 shots in the first were from range, with 9 of 21 in the second — but the team struggled to find the bottom of the net, finishing the first half 2/18 from behind the arc, or 11%.
The change of shot diet was clear coming out of the locker room. After going 12/38 from the field in the first half with the onslaught of missed 3s, the Crimson Tide shot a highly efficient 21/34 and only put up five 3-pointers. This came from a high reliance on those domineering interior players, whether Essence Cody, Naomi Jones, Joy Egbunda or Da Silva Costa, highlighted by a variety of design postups and duck-in seals that led to easy layups.
Monday’s opener against Stetson will tip off at 4 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum.
