Alabama Basketball's Depth Provides Options When the Three-Pointers Aren't Falling
Coming into Tuesday night's game against Kentucky, no. 9 Alabama was averaging 11.2 made 3-pointers per game and was a week removed from a Southeastern Conference record-breaking performance with 23 made three-pointers against LSU.
Alabama opened the game on a hot shooting streak, starting 3-of-3 from behind the arc. The team then went on to only make three more for the entire game, finishing 6-20.
The Crimson Tide is known for making a lot of threes under coach Nate Oats' offensive style, so where does this team turn when the shots aren't falling? Defense, rebounding, and free throw shooting.
"We only got 20 threes up which is obviously not how we usually play, but figured out a way to win the game with defense and rebounding," Oats said.
The Alabama defense held Kentucky to its previous season low of 59 points in the 70-59 Crimson Tide win.
When the offense was struggling, the defense was there to stop the bleeding. It took Alabama more than 10 minutes into the second half before a field goal was made, and the defense kept them in the game.
When Kentucky took a 54-52 lead off a Davion Mintz jumper with 4:37 left in the game, the Alabama defense made stops on seven of nine possessions to close out the game.
With eight players six-foot-seven inches or taller, Kentucky had a size advantage over Alabama regardless. The Crimson Tide was even more undersized on Tuesday with Jordan Bruner still out with his knee injury, and limited availability from forwards Alex Reese and James Rojas because of injury and sickness.
This caused redshirt freshman forward Juwan Gary to play an elevated role. Gary had a season-high 16 minutes and scored six points including a key layup during Alabama's 10-0 run to put the game away in the final minutes.
"If we don’t have him [Gary], we don’t win the game. He was big for us tonight," Oats said.
Even with the height disadvantage, Alabama managed to pull down six offensive rebounds and tie Kentucky at 34 rebounds a piece.
Lastly, free throw shooting was a major part of the Alabama scoring attack Tuesday night to make up for the lack of 3-pointers. The Crimson Tide made 24-28 free throws with Jaden Shackelford and Herbert Jones combining to go 19-20 from the line.
"I think we only shot 20 threes. That's kind of a low for us, so we just had to figure out ways to attack and get good looks," Jones said.
Shackelford said since the three-pointer wasn't falling, it was important to find a way to drive to the basket and get fouled.
After averaging 93.5 points per game from Jan. 9-19, this Alabama team is showing that it has the depth to beat teams in a variety of ways.
