Alabama Basketball's Keon Ellis Puts on a Show in Breakout Performance
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Moments before Tuesday night's game against Florida in Coleman Coliseum, news came forth that starting sophomore guard Jahvon Quinerly would be unavailable for Alabama basketball due to what coach Nate Oats described as a medical condition.
With the highly-anticipated matchup between the 2-0 Gators and the 2-0 Crimson Tide looming, the last-minute news caused some worry among Alabama fans.
That is, until junior guard Keon Ellis stepped onto the scene.
Ellis went off against Florida, totaling 16 points and going three-for-three from three-point land. Combine that with eight defensive rebounds, two steals and two assists, and it was an Ellis breakout party in Tuscaloosa on Tuesday night.
After the game, Oats said that he was proud of Ellis, who hails from the state of Florida.
“Keon Ellis had a big game for us,” Oats said. “He grew up about an hour-and-a-half from Florida’s campus and he came ready to play tonight. He was +30 when he was in the game and that’s maybe the highest plus-minus I’ve seen in a 15-point game maybe ever.
“Really happy for Keon, especially for being a Florida kid [and] growing up right there. Really stepped up big for us tonight without Quinerly.”
The stepping-up of Ellis displays how far this Crimson Tide team has come since last season. Lack of depth and poor shooting from the bench ultimately led to many downfalls last season. Against Florida last January, Alabama led by 21 points at one point, but ultimately fell short to the Gators in double overtime. This happened to the Crimson Tide on several occasions last season, showing a tired and shallow bench.
This season is different, though. Combined with a significantly deeper bench thanks to a solid recruiting class by Oats and his assistants, things are looking up for the Crimson Tide.
Another difference is the set of standards that this team set for themselves heading into the season.
“I think going into the season we had high standards ourselves,” Ellis said. “We knew we could accomplish big things, so it was just a matter of just figuring things out as time went on. Our confidence is high, but we never get the big head because day-in, day-out anybody can beat you so you’ve always got to be prepared to bring it.”
Anybody can beat you is a good mindset for a team that is still experiencing forms of growing pains under the second year of a new head coach.
Back on Dec. 19, Alabama headed into Coleman Coliseum to take on Western Kentucky. In a game that on-paper the Crimson Tide should have won handily, Alabama was unable to find its rhythm and ultimately fell to the Hilltoppers 73-71 in one of its most disappointing losses of the season.
Since that point, however, the Crimson Tide has gone 4-0 and is now 3-0 in SEC play — the first to reach the three-win milestone this season in the conference.
According to Ellis, the loss to WKU was a turning point for his team.
“A turning point?” Ellis said. “You could kinda say that. We knew how good we could be coming into the season so I think taking a loss to them when we were probably the favorites kinda just woke us up. Like I said earlier, you just gotta bring it every night. Anybody is able to beat you so I think at that point we just knew what our level of intensity had to be day-in, day-out to get a win.”
Alabama basketball now prepares for its second true road game of the season against rival Auburn on Saturday (11 a.m. CT, ESPN2).
