Alabama Basketball Looks to Reduce Magic Number to Two Games Against Georgia

The Crimson Tide is just three wins away from clinching the regular-season SEC title

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After picking up a win on Tuesday night at South Carolina and Missouri losing on the road at Ole Miss, the magic number for No. 11 Alabama basketball to clinch the regular-season Southeastern Conference title is three games with only six to go in the regular season.

For the Crimson Tide, that road to three starts on Saturday afternoon against the Georgia Bulldogs in Coleman Coliseum (2:30 p.m. CT, SEC Network).

Alabama currently sits at 11-1 in SEC play while Georgia stands at 5-7. The Bulldogs had a tough start to their SEC slate, losing its first four games. However, Georgia has now won three of its last four games including a 91-86 victory at Auburn, an arena that most teams find difficult to win in.

Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said that despite its 5-7 SEC record, the Bulldogs are not a team to be taken lightly — particularly because of their sophomore guard, Sahvir Wheeler.

“Big game against Georgia,” Oats said. “Before the Tennessee game they had won six out of their last seven and three in a row so they’re playing well. Wheeler’s gonna cause problems getting the ball in the paint, they’re one of the better offensive rebounding teams in the league, they play fast.

“No other team in the league besides us that wants to play up-tempo and fast so [we] gotta keep ‘em out of transitions as much as possible, gotta try and keep Wheeler out of the paint — it’s a lot easier said than done — and then we gotta rebound the ball and rebounding’s been a little bit of an issue with us at times. But those are the big keys.”

Alabama returns to Coleman Coliseum for its first home game since Feb. 3. Having lost two of its last three road games, a return home is welcome for the Crimson Tide. Adding onto the fact that Georgia is 2-4 on the road in SEC games this season, and you would think that Saturday’s game would be an easy win for Alabama.

Or will it?

Alabama will be without two key forwards in grad-student Jordan Bruner and redshirt-freshman Juwan Gary. Combine that with senior wing Herb Jones’ nagging back issues, and this Crimson Tide team is far from healthy. Despite the injuries, though, Alabama has still been able to string together wins. At South Carolina, the Crimson Tide was finally able to establish a consistent offense — something that had been missing over the team’s past few outings.

Oats said he liked where the offense was going but if his team wanted to win in future games, Alabama would have to stop turning the ball over as often as it has of late.

“Offensively, I thought we made a step in the right direction against South Carolina,” Oats said. “I thought our effort was great. To out-rebound South Carolina was big but the 22 turnovers were a major problem so we gotta cut down on turnovers. That’s become a bit of an issue. It hadn’t been for a while. As fast as we play, you gotta live with a few turnovers but 22 is ridiculous and we can’t turn the ball over. If we turn the ball over with them in transition, we’re going to lose the game.”

In order to stop Georgia, Alabama must do three things. First and foremost, it must keep Wheeler and the Bulldogs out of the paint — the place that Georgia really likes to go to make its points. With Alabama down two of its top bigs up front, this will likely be a contested area of the court for the duration of the game.

Second, defensive rebounding. The Crimson Tide has struggled in this area all season, while the Bulldogs ranks 20th in the nation in offensive rebounding. Once again, this will be more difficult for Alabama on the defensive end of the court due to its injuries, but it remains a key factor. Senior forward Alex Reese is expected to start under the net with Bruner and Gary out, and if he is able to keep up his improvement in effort like he has over the last four games, then it’s possible that the issue could be alleviated.

Finally, Alabama needs to improve its offensive movement and shooting from beyond the three-point line. Early in the season, three-point shooting was a strength for the Crimson Tide. However, as of late Alabama has dropped off in that area of performance. The efforts against South Carolina were promising, with the Crimson Tide hitting 12 threes in the contest, but there is still room for improvement.

If Alabama is able to execute those three keys to the game, then it should be able to walk away with a victory after the 40 minutes of basketball is played.

“We’re going to have to really focus on our transition d and keep Wheeler out of the paint and rebound the ball on the defensive end,” Oats said. “They’re going to cause us some problems if we can’t take care of those three things.”