Alabama's 'Toughness Factor' Not up to Scratch on Glass in Arizona Loss

BIRMINGHAM, Ala.— Second, third, fourth and even fifth chances are far from ideal for a defense in the game of basketball. However, repeat opportunities were aplenty in No. 1 Arizona's 96-75 win against Alabama in the C.M. Newton Classic on Saturday night. The Crimson Tide surrendered 22 offensive rebounds and only nabbed three. The total rebounding margin was 52-32 Wildcats.

"The toughness factor was a problem," Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. "You can't win games giving your opponent 28 more field goal attempts. Offensive glass, we had three the whole game. They had 22. We lost the rebounds by 20 again. This has been a recurring issue with us... When we play these tough, physical teams, we haven't answered the bell real well on the glass."

Oats pointed out that Arizona's two centers, Mo Krivas and Tobe Awaka, combined for 29 rebounds. Sixteen of those boards were on the offensive end; nine belonged to Krivas. As a team, the Crimson Tide had 32 total rebounds. Situations like that create statistics such as the one that eventuated from Saturday's contest wherein Arizona had 84 attempts from the field and No. 12 Alabama had 56.

Alabama point guard Labaron Philon has recently been challenged by Oats to step up his rebounding game, and he put up his first double-double of the season with 26 points and 10 boards. He did not have an offensive rebound. Keitenn Bristow, London Jemison and Houston Mallette recorded one each.

"We tried to make a[n] emphasis all week that the guards had to come down and try to rebound, try to get some more rebounds for our bigs," Philon said. "I think I did a good job at that in the first half. Really didn't get too many rebounds in the second half. I think I could've did a better job of crashing the glass on the offensive end."

"We've got rebounding issues. Until we fix them, we're not really gonna be able to beat a good team," Oats said. "The three elite teams we've played, we've lost to cause we got our tails kicked on the glass. Today was just as bad as, maybe worse, than any of them."

The three teams he was referring to are the Wildcats (9-0), No. 6 Purdue and No. 8 Gonzaga. Alabama (7-3) lost the rebounding battle 52-28 to the Boilermakers at home on Nov. 13. Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd came to Tucson after a two-decade stint as an assistant coach under Mark Few at Gonzaga. Lloyd said he feels his team has an advantage on the glass "on most nights."

"A theme for the week for us is, early energy, early effort," he said. "The word we really hammered in on was endurance. You have to have competitive endurance against a team like that, because they just keep coming at you, coming at you, coming at you, and our guys, I thought they did that."

The Crimson Tide cannot remain competitive against the top teams in the nation if it does not find a way to improve in the rebounding department. Center Noah Williamson grabbed one in 11 minutes. Forward Aiden Sherrell had five rebounds; he was second behind Philon and missed most of the second half because of cramps.

"Keitenn's a pretty good rebounder. He's coming off the injury. I think he can help us more. Gotta get Noah helping us a little more," Oats said. "Taylor's [Bol Bowen] the big factor that he plays a lot of minutes and doesn't get very many rebounds at 6-[foot]-10. He's the big one that can help fix the problem, probably, the best. But if he doesn't wanna do it, we're just gonna find somebody else to do it."

Bol Bowen collected four rebounds across 26 minutes. Six of Philon's were in the first half, which Alabama led 41-39 at the close of despite trailing 11-2 on the offensive glass. That deficit snowballed, and in turn, the top-ranked team in the country took advantage of its extra opportunities and extra shot attempts for a blowout win.

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