The Alabama women’s basketball team will travel to Gainesville, Fla., Wednesday to take on the Florida Gators (12-6, 2-3 SEC). The Tide (10-9, 0-5) will be looking to earn their first Southeastern Conference win on the season.
Crimson Tide head coach Wendell Hudson said an SEC win would be huge for his team.
“I think a win right now would be awful big for us right now,” Hudson said. “Because you know, you keep working hard, I think the team is still working hard and hadn’t stopped playing hard. I thought we’re giving ourselves a chance … to win, we just haven’t been able to get over the hump to get it done. But eventually you really have to have some success.”
Hudson said the fact that it’s a road game would provide an even greater boost for his team; Florida is 8-3 at home this season. Sophomore Jasmine Robinson echoed her coach’s thoughts, adding that her team needed to play a perfect game – something she said the Tide hasn’t done all season.
“If we have a perfect game, it’ll carry on to the next game,” Robinson said. “Because right now, we haven’t had a perfect game. We always have mental lapses in each game so far. So I think if we have one win where we had a perfect game where everybody does their job, I think we’ll be successful from here on out.”
Still, Alabama will face a tough test in Florida against a team that has seen success with perimeter shooting on the season – a task Alabama has had difficulty defending, especially in its last two games (losses to Ole Miss and Mississippi State).
Hudson also said he expects Florida to play zone defense against Alabama to keep them out of the post where Alabama has seen most of its offensive production this season. So far this season, Alabama is making 37 percent of its shots.
For Hudson, one of the keys to victory for his players is to sink baskets when they can, rebound and score easy baskets on transitions.
“I think that’s the thing we need to do right now, is to get a transition game going,” Hudson said. “And so if we can get on the boards, and do a pretty good job on the boards, and then get into a transition game, we can be a lot better.
“I think when we’ve played our basketball this year, is when we’ve been a transition basketball team.”
Robinson said the only thing Alabama has to worry about when it plays Florida is controlling the game through its defense and playing assignment basketball.
“I think [Florida] has an all-around good team, so if we just play defense, that’ll do the job for us,” Robinson said. “Because that’s where it stands from us anyway. We start off on defense … I think that’ll help us accomplish what we need to do.
“If we do our job, we’ll come home with a win.”
