Women's Basketball Looks to Rebound in the SEC Tournament
It is a brand new season.
At least that's what Alabama women's basketball head coach Kristy Curry said about the SEC Tournament.
Curry spoke to the media on Monday as the Crimson Tide prepared to head to Greenville, S.C. to compete in the conference tournament. The Tide had a chance to be the No. 4 seed and receive a double-bye, but after losing its last three games of the regular season, the team dropped to the No. 6 seed.
That isn't a problem for Curry, who has chosen to look at the positive while pointing out the difference between the two positions in the bracket.
"The 4-seed gets South Carolina and our seed gets Tennessee. You pick which one you'd rather have," Curry said. "Yes, we wanted to win on Sunday, but at the end of the day it is what it is and we're gonna find the positives in it."
Even though Tennessee beat Alabama by double digits in the regular season, it's fair that Curry would prefer the Volunteers over the No. 1 team in the country and arguably the best player in the country in Aliyah Boston.
Before playing Tennessee in the quarterfinals, Alabama has to wait until Wednesday afternoon to learn who its first opponent will be. Will it be the Florida Gators, where Alabama lost on the road by single digits? Or will it be the Kentucky Wildcats, where a Brittany Davis double-double propelled the Tide to a 72-65 victory?
Here are some notes about both teams, starting with Florida:
- KK Deans had her second-highest scoring game (22 points) in SEC play this season against Alabama, including her best performance from the free-throw line: 8-for-8
- Jada Rice being in foul trouble really hurt Alabama on the glass as Florida won the offensive rebounding battle 16-6
- Both teams combined for 43 fouls in the game, meaning Alabama will need to prepare for another physical bout should that be its opponent.
Rice has since gotten out of her foul-heavy funk, but Alabama must have a better approach to contain Deans while not fouling. The Gators shot 26-for-36 on free throws, by far the most attempts and the second-most makes Alabama allowed all season. If it wasn't for all of the free throws, Deans would've been the only double-digit scorer for Florida. The Crimson Tide also must end more defensive possessions with a rebound and not give up 18 second-chance points again.
When it comes to Kentucky, there are two issues that stick out: Alabama gave up 16 points off of 18 turnovers, and Kentucky nearly doubled the Tide's points in the paint (28-16).
But what saved Alabama against Kentucky, and what kept the Florida game close, was the balanced scoring. Curry's squad had four players reach double figures in both games, and that is something she is looking for in the SEC Tournament.
"We've got to find ways for people to make plays," Curry said. "You can put them in a position, but players make plays. I think our best players have to show up, and I'm not sure we've done that lately.
"It's gotta come by committee. That's when every team this time of year is at their best, it's by committee. It's not all on Brittany's shoulders, it's not all on Sarah Ashlee Barker's shoulders. We've gotta make sure our four leading scorers through SEC play show up down the stretch and we gotta have everybody contributing."
The four leading scorers for Alabama are Davis, Aaliyah Nye, Barker and Hannah Barber. Barker seeks contact on drives to the basket but does shoot 34.4 percent from 3-point range. The other three can get hot from beyond the arc, and Davis is a strong left-handed finisher.
Besides the offensive output, another factor about the postseason is that there are no secrets: everyone has seen everyone else play, and each team has had a chance to review the takeaways, or "nuggets" as Curry called them.
"I'm happy seeing those two in the second half of conference play, both Kentucky and Florida," Curry said. "Obviously there are some things that we feel like we can do better against both of them having seen them in person.
"I also think it's dictated by what worked before and how can you build on that, and what didn't work well and how can you improve that."
There is a commonality between the two opponents: turnovers. Alabama coughed it up 18 times against Kentucky, then 20 more times against Florida. It's hard to win basketball games when the turnover count is that high. Protecting the ball is one of the mistakes Curry alluded to when she talked about improvements, and with both potential opponents ranking in the top-10 in steals per game in the SEC, it'll be even more important.
Regardless of who Alabama plays, the Crimson Tide needs a solid tournament performance to maintain its seeding for the NCAA Tournament. Curry was right in saying that Alabama was a tournament team, but losing the last three games of the regular season will surely hurt the stock of a team that was an 8-seed according to Charlie Creme.
But a surprise tournament run is possible. After all, this is the same program that made it to the quarterfinals last season as an 11-seed.
It's not called "March Madness" for nothing.
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