How Alabama Basketball Has Changed Since the First Mississippi State Matchup

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— One of the main goals for a college basketball team or really any sports franchise for that matter is to show improvement in as many stat categories as possible as the season goes on.

No. 6 Alabama men's basketball is set to face No. 24 Mississippi State at home on Tuesday night, as it'll be the Crimson Tide's fourth-to-last game of the regular season. This will also be the second time Alabama and the Bulldogs meet this year as the Crimson Tide came out on top 88-84 in a thriller on the road on January 29.

An exciting outcome like this one should've provided some momentum for the winning team over the course of its next few games. However, this hasn't exactly been the case for the Crimson Tide as it's 4-2 since that night after being 6-1 in SEC play before it.

Obviously, some of Alabama's recent opponents have been ranked higher than the ones before the first Mississippi State game, but the Crimson Tide's stats on a per-game basis since then are still a bit surprising:

Before First Mississippi State Game	After First Mississippi State Game
Record: 6-1	Record: 4-2
Current AP Top 25 Opponents: 2	Current AP Top 25 Opponents: 3
91.1 points	92.8 points
80.9 points allowed	86.2 points allowed
47.7 FG%, 34.2 deep%	51.9 FG%, 38.3 deep%
41.9 opponent FG%, 29.1 opponent deep%	44.4 opponent FG%, 34.0 opponent deep%
39.3 total rebounds	37.2 total rebounds
11.1 offensive rebounds	8.5 offensive rebounds
16.9 assists	14.8 assists
6.7 steals	4.3 steals
5.6 blocks	4.0 blocks
12.3 turnovers	14.0 turnovers
20.0 personal fouls	20.8 personal fouls

"It's been a while since we played [Mississippi State]," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during Monday's press conference. "We've had some ups and downs. We've had some issues that have been squared away and then flared right back up again, so I don't know exactly where we were at with all the issues and things we needed to improve on."

Alabama's numbers may be slightly down in the total rebounds category, but its year-long average of 43.8 per game and 30.4 defensive rebounds per game are each the best marks in the nation. The Crimson Tide was near the very top of the country in offensive rebounds per game as well a while back, but now its 13.4 season-long is good for 20th.

Unlike rebounding, turnovers have been hands down this team's biggest weakness this season as Alabama has given the ball away at least 10 times in now 18 of its 27 games. Alabama has been known for its extremely fast-paced offense all season, but sometimes going too quickly results in making mistakes, even for the No. 6 team in the country. The Crimson Tide's 13.26 turnovers per game and its -3.07 turnover margin are both the worst in the SEC.

"But I did think we rebounded the ball fairly well against [Mississippi State] and we have not rebounded the ball very well lately," Oats said. "That needs to come back up. Turnovers we had somewhat under control for a minute there. We've had issues here the last few weeks with turnovers, we've got to get that squared away because [Mississippi State] will turn you over."

Alabama leads the nation in points per game with 90.8, but the Crimson Tide's 80.4 points allowed ranks 354th of 364 teams in the field. Of course, Oats and company have had numerous impressive defensive performances throughout the season, but besides this past Saturday's Kentucky win plus the Georgia victory, we haven't really seen a stout outing from the Crimson Tide throughout SEC play.

Excluding the Georgia game, Alabama has allowed at least 80 points in every contest since the first Mississippi State matchup. The Crimson Tide's defense stepped up last season once the NCAA Tournament started, but now in a far more competitive Southeastern Conference, Alabama will need to lock down before the SEC Tournament.

"I think our defensive intensity after the first four minutes Saturday [against Kentucky] was much better than it had been," Oats said. "I felt like that had taken a little bit of a dip. I think our defense, I hope our defense currently is better than it was at [Mississippi State's] place, but it's also gone up and down a little bit, so it needs to get up, stay up and the intensity needs to stay where it's at along with the attention and detail in the scouting report.

"I'd have to go back and look at where we were at exactly on everything there. But we need to get the rebounding back, we need to get the turnovers down and we need to get a defensive mindset back where it's at for the whole 40 minutes."

Keep an eye on No. 6 Alabama's rebounding, turnovers and defense tonight against No. 24 Mississippi State at 8 p.m. CT in Coleman Coliseum or on ESPN2.

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