The Alabama men’s basketball team, fresh off of a 65-60 overtime win on the road against the Tennessee Volunteers, are preparing to face Vanderbilt in Nashville tonight.
The Crimson Tide has had trouble playing the Commodores in Memorial Coliseum, having not won there since 1990. That’s not something head coach Anthony Grant is concerned with, though.
“This is a different team,” Grant said. “Every year it’s a new team, a new identity. We can’t worry about our past, good or bad.”
The Tide’s troubles at Memorial Coliseum have been attributed to its design. Memorial Coliseum is the only basketball arena in the NCAA’s Division I to have the benches and coaches’ box behind the backboard instead of parallel to the length of the court.
“I’ve never played on anything like it before,” sophomore forward Tony Mitchell said. “That will be a first, for sure.”
When talking about Memorial Coliseum, Grant emphasized that every game is different and provides different challenges, but he and his starting point guard, Trevor Releford, had the same take on the setup at Memorial Coliseum.
“The game is still going to be decided between the lines,” Grant and Releford both said.
As for winning the second of two consecutive road games, the Tide plans on doing the same things it did to win 10 of its last 11 games and seven of its first eight conference games.
“We have to go out and play 40 minutes of Alabama basketball,” Releford said.
The Tide can look to Releford, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, to continue playing at a high level.
“The other guys have confidence in Trevor to get the job done,” Grant said.
Though just a freshman, Releford has not wavered in the face of a tough road crowd.
“I faced a lot of this in high school, just more people here,” Releford said. “But I like shutting them up.”
Defense has been a big part of Alabama’s conference play success, as well. Alabama is currently allowing only 57.67 points per game and has held two teams to less than 40 points and another five at 50 points or less. Alabama’s scoring defense was at one point the second best in the nation.
“[Defense] is the thing that has given us the chance to win in every game thus far,” Grant said. “It will have to continue to be that way.”
A big part of the Tide’s strong defensive effort is Mitchell, who has had two steals and three blocks in both of Alabama’s last two wins. He also had 23 points against Mississippi State and 24 points against Tennessee, both of which were career highs.
Mitchell’s high-flying, exciting dunks have been a big boost for the Tide.
“Seeing him go up so high and dunk like that really gets us going,” Releford said. “It makes us want to defend more. It makes us try harder to get that steal or defend harder that possession.”
Look for the Crimson Tide (15-7, 7-1 SEC) to face the Commodores (16-4, 4-4 SEC) on ESPN2 tonight, then come back to Coleman Coliseum to play the Ole Miss Rebels (15-8, 3-5 SEC) on Saturday.
