The top-seeded Alabama men’s basketball team will play host to Stanford in the second round of the National Invitation Tournament on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum.
The No. 4 seed Cardinal defeated No. 5 Stephen F. Austin 58-57 late Tuesday night to advance to the second round. Stanford (18-14, 9-9 Pac-12) escaped the first round after the Lumberjacks’ Desmond Haymon missed a last-second shot.
Dwight Powell recorded a double-double with 12 points and 15 points to lead the Cardinal in its win. Stanford has won three of its last four games coming into the second round contest of the NIT.
Alabama (21-12, 12-6 SEC) took care of No. 8 Northeastern 62-43 on Tuesday to stay alive in its quest to get back to New York. The Tide is also the winners of three of its last four contests.
But head coach Anthony Grant said he wants to see more consistency out of his team.
This season, the Tide has been known to break out on impressive offensive runs and build leads in games only to see those leads dissolve when the shooting goes cold. Tuesday night was no different.
“As a team, we’ve got to get beyond that,” Grant said. “That’s the maturity that I’m looking for as a coach, and my expectation for our guys is to understand that. Let’s get the maturity. Let’s stop letting that happen. Let’s stop allowing that to happen. Obviously, you can’t always control what another team does, but let’s not do it to ourselves.”
Northeastern cut Alabama’s lead to one point in the second half after the Tide had led for majority of the game.
Junior guard Trevor Releford said he and his teammates weren’t pleased with the team’s drought in scoring and came together during a timeout to talk things over.
“We just came together as a team and said, ‘We’ve got to make plays,’” Releford said. “‘We’ve got to step up. We’ve got to defend. We’ve got to stop them too. We can’t keep trading baskets. Let’s play.’”
After that meeting, Alabama responded and went on a 22-0 run and took back control of the game until the final buzzer.
The game against Stanford will tip off at 11 a.m. and will be televised on ESPN.
