T.G. Paschal/BamaCentral
Clash of Styles Cost Alabama Against Texas A&M
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Looking at the numbers coming into the matchup between the University of Alabama men's basketball team and Texas A&M it was obvious that they were two completely different teams, who play two completely different styles.
The Aggies ranked 351st in the country in three-point percentage, while the Crimson Tide was third nationally in three-pointers made.
As for scoring offense, Alabama ranked 2nd in nation with 83.2 points per game and Texas A&M was 339th with only 61.2 points a game.
One team wants to go fast, while the other prefers going at a slower rate than most.
But in the Crimson Tide's 74-68 loss on Wednesday night inside Coleman Coliseum, coach Nate Oats said that his team allowed the Aggies to dictate the pace.
"Yeah, they slowed us way down," Oats said when asked about if his team got too comfortable playing in the Aggies style. "A lot of our shots came with under 10 seconds in the shot clock and we are not use to that."
Aggies forward Josh Nebo had only two points in the first half, and the Crimson Tide's plan to deny him the ball in the post was working, as shown on the scoreboard with Alabama leading 34-28 at intermission.
Nebo got loose in the second half on the offense end scoring 12 points, five of which came during the Aggies' 12-0 to take the lead and eventually seal the victory.
"When we did not front [Nebo], he went to work on us," Oats said. "They are a hard playing group. I did not think we gave the effort to win the game in the last four minutes to win the game on the defensive end."
The Crimson Tide's three-point shooting was working for most of the night, but when it mattered late, the team went 2-of-8 from beyond the arc in the final 3:02 of the game, including a zero for five stretch doing that aforementioned Aggies run.
Alabama finished the night going 16-of-44 from beyond the arc. On the other hand, the Aggies shot 11-of-24 from distance, which was good for 45.8 percent.
"They had a better night than us," Oats said. "Some of it is we did not play hard enough. Some of that is you have to close hard and make them miss and not them get into a rhythm. They shot a lot better than we expected them to shoot."
The Aggies also had the free throw advantage, shooting 18 more shots at the charity stripe than the Crimson Tide.
"They certainly took us out of our game tonight," Oats said."It is disappointing because we had been able to play pretty fast recently. They held us to 68 points, which is one of our lower outings on the season."
