Alabama's John Petty Jr. Taking More Professional-Like Approach to Basketball

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Since coach Nate Oats has arrived at the University of Alabama, guard John Petty Jr. has played the best basketball of his career in the last two seasons.

As a junior, he was the Southeastern Conference's best three-point shooter at 44 percent, which led him to making All-SEC Second Team. He was even the Crimson Tide's leading rebounder in 2019-20 at 6.6 each time out.

Now a senior, Petty is second in scoring at 13.2 points per game, third in rebounds at 5.1, and shooting at a clip of 52.3 percent from beyond-the-arc in 10 SEC contests.

Open the game with a 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩.

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— Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) February 4, 2021

He's also leveled up on defense, averaging 1.1 steals a game across the last two seasons. The defensive effort and intensity Petty has shown over these two years with Oats would have been unimaginable during his freshman and sophomore campaigns.

But that all has to do with maturing over time.

A former five-star recruit out of Huntsville, Ala. and the current program leader in three-pointers made, where has Oats seen his game improve the most over the last 24 months?

It starts in the film room and with Petty's preparation.

"I think he has grown the most in his approach to the game," Oats told the media via Zoom on Friday. "If you are interested in skills, he's a play maker. Shoot, he was playing the point in practice today. He makes great reads. He can assist. He can also play both sides of the ball now. He's a great defender. All that stuff aside, I think the biggest change is just his overall approach to the game. Just look at his focus, his work, he stays after practice. He comes back in at night and shoots. He's locked in.

"He's always had a high IQ. I told our guys before, the smart guy who never shows up to class or studies still fails the class. If you have a high IQ and don't put time in, you aren't going to know what you need to be doing. Petty's always had the high IQ, now he is putting the time in. He's looking at film. He talks to me before practice about what the other team is doing.

"I think he handles the game like a professional now. Before, he was just a good basketball player."

Projected as a late second-round pick, Petty opted to forgo the NBA draft last offseason to return for one more season in Tuscaloosa and it's paying off.

The 6-foot-5, 185-pound guard has been one of the key pieces of the Crimson Tide's 10-0 run to start SEC play. It's the first time in 65 years that Alabama has ever done that before.

In seven non-conference games leading up to league play, Petty only made 13 of his 46 three-point attempts. After an undisclosed suspension against East Tennessee State before Christmas, Petty says that was a wake-up call to flip the switch in his mind.

"That break over the holidays was just to get my mind right and to focus in more," Petty said. "I feel like it helped a lot."

While he is shooting 52 percent from deep in SEC games, Petty's hot streak has dwindled of late, as he is 5-of-17 combined from three-point range in the team's most recent games against SEC competition versus Mississippi State, Kentucky, and LSU.

However, he is still the league leader in triples made this season at 46.

"Just paying more details to the teams," Petty said of what's been the difference. "Instead of just looking over personnel, I'm watching full games and starting to write notes about how teams guard and different things they do. That's the approach I'm taking, just taking the extra mile and going into detail of each scouting report."

The 10th-ranked Crimson Tide has a pivotal meeting with No. 18 Missouri on Saturday morning (11 a.m, ESPN) to continue to create more separation atop the league standings. The Tigers are the only other SEC team with three conference losses remaining.

Alabama has only averaged six makes from deep over its last three games after averaging over 11 per game before then. Petty isn't too worried about the Crimson Tide overcoming that hurdle.

"I mean, we are just having one of those times where our shots really aren't dropping," Petty said. "It has nothing to do with our preparation. We are getting a lot of shots up. It's just one of those slumps we are in.

"We are going to come out of that. Best believe that."

Regardless, for Alabama to win its first regular-season SEC title since 2002, it will need its sharpshooter to answer the bell when his number is called.

"It's been great," Petty added. "In the summertime, I knew the potential of this team, just by how we worked and the type of guys we have and the system. It's mixed really well. It feels good to finally win. I'm real happy and excited to keep it going."