Alabama Basketball Shows Improvement in Main Weakness in Win Over USF

The Crimson Tide grabbed a season-high 20 offensive rebounds against the Bulls.

Alabama forward Taylor Bol Bowen (7) in action against USF at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa, AL on Wednesday, Dec 17, 2025. | Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Sometimes weaknesses are difficult to find for ranked college basketball teams, but No. 16 Alabama's obstacle has been an obvious dilemma to start the season.

The Crimson Tide came into Wednesday night ranked 173rd in the country in offensive rebounds per game with 11.5, but its average of 14.2 allowed is 358th out of 365 Division I schools. It's played a major factor in each of Alabama's three losses, as Purdue grabbed 19 offensive rebounds, Gonzaga had 20 and Arizona tallied 22 on Saturday night in Birmingham.

Alabama took down South Florida 104-93 in Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday. Head coach Nate Oats' emphasis on the glass was immediately apparent, as the Crimson Tide tallied 16 offensive rebounds in the first half. UA finished with a season-high 20 offensive rebounds.

"I was pleased with our effort coming out," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "We've been emphasizing the rebounding issues. We were up 10 on them in the first half, so I think they got the message that we've [been] trying [to make]. It's the first time all year we've had more than three guys have seven rebounds with Aiden [Sherrell] Taylor [Bol Bowen] and Houston [Mallette]."

Oats reunited with former Crimson Tide assistant Bryan Hodgson, who is the Bulls' head coach. Hodgson was an assistant under Oats at Buffalo (2015-19) and UA (2019-23). Hodgson quickly caught onto the theme of the game.

"Obviously coach Oats put a major emphasis on the offensive glass," Hodgson said during the postgame press conference. "They had 16 at halftime, which stifled us a bit. We knew that they would do that, I told my guys that they were going to come out and hit the offensive glass. I thought had we kept them off the offensive glass, we could've gone to the halftime locker room with the lead."

While Alabama showed a ton of improvement in its main weakness, it only had four offensive rebounds in the second half and USF, who came into the game averaging the fifth-most O-boards in the country, finished with 25.

"So I thought the rebounding was good for a half," Oats said. "I thought it was solid at the beginning of the second half, and then it kind of fell apart. They ended up getting 25 O-boards. They're great on the glass. We had 25 D-boards, they had 25 O-boards. That's not ideal.

"We've got to continue to work here. We've got to continue to get better, we've got to have guys that can rebound it. We've got to continue to look at it, continue to look at our lineups. You know, we kind of challenged the guards to rebound. I thought [Aden] Holloway did a really good job tonight in four defensive rebounds. You know him and Houston led the team in defensive rebounding."

It's not exactly typical for Mallette, a 6-foot-5 guard, to be tied for the team's second-most rebounds, but Oats isn't too surprised with that result.

"He's about the right stuff," Oats said. "He's super coachable. Anything we emphasize, he's trying to do it at an elite level. He's the guy that's always 'Coach, get me out, I need a break.' So he makes you want to put him back in, because he pulls himself out. He understands he's too tired to play as hard as he needs to, he gets out.

"So we need everybody to do that more, because obviously, the last 10 minutes this game, we didn't do a very good job on the O-boards. So, you know, if you're too tired, you pull yourself out of it. But I love coaching Houston.

"He's nowhere close to being perfect. He's got defensive breakdowns. He's got to get better at all that, but he tries to do exactly what you tell him to do, all the time. So I'm really happy to see him at seven rebounds."

Mallette spoke about his rebounding performance after the game, as he wanted to step up on the glass.

"It's an area we've struggled at as a team up to this point," Mallette said. "It's something I can be pretty good at. Obviously Amari [Allen] didn't play tonight but he was a big help in that category, so I was kind of picking up where he left off.

"I think it's important. I just think collectively we have to better at rebounding and whatever I can do to help the team win, that's what I'm focused on. If you focus on any of the tough plays, like coach says, everything will take care of itself."

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