Alabama Guard Labaron Philon Returns to Form in Dominant Road Win Over Texas

The three-time SEC Freshman of the Week came into Tuesday night with one game over 10 points in the last five contests.

Alabama basketball guard Labaron Philon (0) / Obtained from Alabama Athletics' X/Twitter

There's no need to sugarcoat it, Alabama men's basketball guard Labaron Philon has struggled in the past few games. While an ankle injury was a big reason for this, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats didn't fully blame Philon's recent performances on it.

"I think he's realizing it's not that easy," Oats said before the Georgia game nearly two weeks ago. "I think he's learning that just because you've had success in the past, which he had a lot of success all summer and fall and early in the year, doesn't guarantee any future success or current success...When you play the way you've been playing and people start scouting you more, it gets harder and harder and harder."

The past success that Oats is referring to was Philon winning the SEC Freshman of the Week award three times earlier in the season. But for the last five games, he's only logged one contest with at least 10 points and hasn't had one night with more than 25 minutes of action in that span.

Now very much healed from the ankle injury, Philon had the golden opportunity on Tuesday night to get back on track and revive his status as one of the most dangerous freshmen in college basketball. Alabama faced Texas tonight, who was 4-7 in SEC play and had lost three of their last four contests coming into the game.

It was immediately clear that Philon was taking advantage of the opportunity in No. 2 Alabama's 103-80 blowout win over the Longhorns. In the first half, he scored an Alabama-high 10 points on 4-for-6 from the field, including 2-for-3 from long range in 11 minutes of action. Although the sample size was small, Philon also led the team with two assists to help build a dominant 49-31 margin.

Another reason for Philon's hot start came on the mental side as he was preparing to face Texas freshman and SEC leading scorer Tre Johnson, who was a teammate of the Texas superstar last year at Link Academy, a school in Missouri that's known for its basketball prowess. The two of them led Link Academy to the No. 3 spot in the final national rankings.

It was pretty apparent that every time Philon touched the ball in the first half, there seemed to be an extra jolt of energy that we hadn't seen during the cold stretch, and again, the ankle injury is a reason for this. Philon and Johnson were talking to each other as they were "jawing at each other" down the court, per the ESPN broadcast.

It's important to state that although Philon gave the Crimson Tide some insight about Johnson's skillset prior to the game, it simply didn't work as Johnson finished with 24 points on 9-for-17 from the field, including 4-for-8 from downtown. Nevertheless, this didn't stop Philon from shining in the second half as a shooter and playmaker.

Philon finished the game with 15 points on 6-for-10 from the field, including 3-for-5 from behind the arc, six rebounds, a team-high four assists and a steal in 25 minutes on the floor. His efforts as a playmaker and scorer helped him join forward Jarin Stevenson (season-high 22 points) and guards Mark Sears (18), Aden Holloway (18) as Alabama players who tallied 15-plus points on Tuesday night.

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