Takeaways from Alabama Basketball's Comeback Win Over Georgia
ATHENS, Ga. — It looked over, until it wasn't.
Alabama basketball put on a comeback for the ages, blazing back from 16 down to defeat Georgia on the road in Stegeman Coliseum on Wednesday night, holding onto first place in the SEC standings.
Mark Sears once again found himself as the leading scorer in the game, dropping 23 in the Crimson Tide's 85-76 win.
Here are some of my thoughts and takeaways after witnessing the madness in Athens.
1. A tale of two halves.
The start was about as bad as you could have imagined. Alabama's offense looked anemic, while Georgia was canning 3-pointers like 2017 Golden State. At the under-12 timeout, Georgia led the game 17-2.
Alabama looked disinterested in competing. The Crimson Tide got outrebounded in the first half by a ridiculous 27-7 margin. The effort was nonexistent, all the while the Bulldogs made 54 percent of their threes compared to Alabama's 18 percent.
It looked like Alabama could get run out of the gym. Even after finding a little bit of its offensive footing, the defense faltered, and going into halftime the Crimson Tide trailed by 14.
"They came out of the gate ready to play, we did not," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "We missed some shots and it affected how we play offense. I thought we got away from what made us good. They killed us on the glass. I didn't think we played hard enough, they played a lot harder than us."
What followed was one of the most jarring shifts I've seen in a basketball game. Alabama scored a whopping 58 second-half points, more than doubling its first half total.
The defense strung together stops, the ball started moving at a faster pace, and threes started falling when the team stopping passing up open looks.
A team that looked scared to attack, scared to shoot and scared to rebound in the first half all of a sudden started playing free and with confidence.
"I think we just had to settle down. Make or miss shots, let's just get good shots," Oats said. "I thought us missing shots made us press a little more, I thought we were turning down open threes. I said that early in the second half in a timeout, 'guys, we're not going to win this game if we start turning down open threes,' like, that's not how we play. Every open three you get, take it, and we've got to go get the o-boards. They'll eventually drop."
And eventually, they did. Alabama made five of it's eight total threes in the final six minutes of the game, which sparked the comeback and led to the resilient win.
2. Grant Nelson's confidence takes a step forward.
Grant Nelson's offensive struggles have been well-documented if you've followed the 2023-24 Alabama basketball team, and if you're been reading this series after every game, you know I've been impressed with Nelson's ability to settle into a role as of late.
Against Georgia, Nelson looked as comfortable as he has all season, posted one of his best stat lines of the year, and iced the game down the stretch.
For the first time in a while, he truly looked confident.
Nelson scored 20 points on 8-for-11 shooting for the game. During the first half, when Alabama needed a bucket, it turned to Nelson's post game and it delivered.
But where Nelson's confidence truly took a step forward was his 3-point shot. On the season, Nelson has shot under 25 percent from three, but that hasn't always deterred him from attempting his open looks.
He knocked down a look in the first half, but with under two minutes to go in the game, Nelson called his own number again. He drilled back-to-back threes from the top of the key within 30 seconds of each other, ultimately extending Alabama's lead to six points and effectively putting the game out of reach.
"They give me confidence every day at practice, every game in the huddles, just telling me to shoot open shots," Nelson said. "So I just let it fly."
Nelson continues to be an x-factor for the Crimson Tide as his offensive game has re-developed since SEC play began. He's gotten significantly more minutes as a stretch-5, which have done him well, and his improvement only makes things scarier for Alabama's opponents.
3. The kind of win that wins a league title.
The SEC is deep, and it's incredibly hard to win on the road in the SEC.
The fact that Alabama was able to not only go on the road and get a win, but get a win in a game where they played far from their best basketball game, is huge for the Crimson Tide's SEC title hopes.
The win helps Alabama stay one game ahead of the rest of the SEC in the loss column, and pulling off such a comeback in a road game is even sweeter.
"It's huge, you can't win the league title if you don't win some of these," Oats said. "There's going to be games you don't play your best basketball, particularly for 20 minutes or whatever. If you're still able to steal a win at the end of the day, [...] you got to win some of these on the road."
The win moves the Crimson Tide to 7-1 in the SEC, while multiple teams trail behind at 6-2. Alabama now holds a 3-1 record on the road in SEC play, with the only loss coming to Tennessee.
It's really hard to win on the road. Mississippi State beat Auburn at home on Saturday, just to go on the road and lose to Ole Miss on Tuesday. It's happened all around the league.
So, for Alabama to be able to show the resiliency, show the toughness that it did to be able to come back from 16 down and steal a win away from home? That's the kind of stuff you look back on at the end of the year and realize it helped win you an SEC title.
Alabama hasn't won the league yet, but at this rate, it's more than in the cards.
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