As students spill out of Tuscaloosa to travel home for Thanksgiving, the Alabama men’s basketball team will spend its break in New York City.
The Crimson Tide will face the No. 6 Duke Blue Devils in the semifinal round of the NIT Season Tip-off in Madison Square Garden.
“We’re excited about the opportunity to go to New York and compete,” coach Anthony Grant said. “Obviously, for our team it’s a great opportunity to play Duke University, one of the top teams in the country [with] the success that they’ve had so far this season. It will be a great challenge for our team.”
Grant said the Blue Devils have a lot of weapons with the ability to score, with the team averaging almost 93 points per game this year. He recognized the play of freshman forward Jabari Parker in particular.
Parker is averaging 23 points and 8.8 rebounds per game this season. He is ranked second in the country with six 20-point games.
“It’s always going to be a team game, but Jabari’s certainly an outstanding talent,” Grant said. “He’s a guy that has the ability to face the basket, in terms of his ability to put it on the floor and create shots and also his size and physicality inside.”
Against Parker and Duke, Alabama will focus on taking care of the basketball.
“You look at our numbers, we’re turning the ball over way too much and giving our opponents opportunities to get out in transition and get easy baskets,” Grant said. “With a team like Duke, that’s dangerous if you’re going do that because of their ability to score the basketball.”
The Blue Devils boast a 19-2 record in the NIT Season Tip-off, winning 13 consecutive games in the tournament.
Duke also owns a 7-1 record when playing Alabama; however, Wednesday night’s game will be the first meeting between these two teams since 1986.
Grant and the Crimson Tide players are not intimidated by Duke’s elite pedigree. The focus for the semifinal round is simple.
“It’s a great opportunity to go to New York and play in Madison Square Garden, but for us it’s about the game itself and coming out with a win,” Grant said.
Junior guard Levi Randolph echoed his coach’s philosophy.
“We’re just excited to be able to go back to New York and be able to play for a championship,” Randolph said. “That’s the main thing right there, to just try to take each game as it comes. It happens to be the next game on the schedule, and we’re going to do everything we can to get ready for it and to try to go out there and win a championship.”
The Crimson Tide and Blue Devils will tip off at 8:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
