Alabama Men’s Basketball Looking to Regroup Defensively Going into SEC Play
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 19 Alabama men’s basketball (9-3) had an unpredictable non-conference run to say the least. The Crimson Tide toppled heavyweights Gonzaga and Houston, and fell to three unranked opponents in Memphis, Iona, and Davidson.
Such is the nature of college hoops, and the Crimson Tide already knows that dwelling in the past isn’t a valuable tactic moving forward.
Following the loss to Davidson in the C.M. Newton Classic, Alabama dropped from No. 10 to No. 19 in the AP poll.
The Crimson Tide’s upcoming opponent, the Tennessee Volunteers, jumped from No. 19 to No. 14 in that poll following their impressive win over No. 9 Arizona.
“Excited to start conference play,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said Tuesday afternoon. “Obviously not starting with an easy one, Tennessee is the highest rated team in the SEC according to a lot of analytics and polls and whatnot. So we’ve got our work cut out.
“They’re really good defensively, they play really hard. They just played a great defensive game against Arizona their last game out.”
Despite coming off the loss to Davidson, Oats said that he likes where his team is mentally heading into another tough game.
“There’s a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed that we can control,” Oats said. “We can control our effort, we can control our preparation going into the game so we’re locked in better. We can control our attitude about defense.
“I don’t think it’s a personnel issue… we’ve got guys that can guard when their minds are in the right place. I think we need to see that and I think we will see it coming out here.”
Oats added that there was reason to be concerned about the Crimson Tide’s recent rebounding issues.
“It’s going to be a team effort to fix the rebounding issues we’ve got,” Oats said.
A player who could help immensely in the rebounding category is forward James Rojas, who has been out due to injury all season.
“We all know how Rojas plays. He’s one of the tougher, grittier, hard nose, blue collar guys in the league,” Oats said. “So we could use him, but he’s still not practicing.
“We had an aggressive timeline to start with with him because he responded so well the first time. He’s responding well now, but there’s been a couple setbacks. He’s gotten sick and not been able to do the rehab at times. He’s getting closer… we’d love to have him back as soon as we can.”
Noah Gurley, a healthy forward for Alabama, has been getting significant minutes all season.
“He’s been one of our guys that’s spent a ton of time in the gym over the last month,” Oats said. “All his work is not going to go unrewarded.
“I see him making a breakthrough in conference play.”
SEC basketball is here, and Alabama and Tennessee will get it going Wednesday night at 8 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum.
