Takeaways from Alabama Basketball's Win Over Indiana State
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball left Coleman Coliseum with its second win of the season on Friday night, defeating Indiana State in a 102-80 blowout victory.
Here are a few of my thoughts and takeaways from the 24th-ranked Crimson Tide's win.
1. Aaron Estrada took the game over early.
Monday night belonged to Grant Nelson, and once again he put together an excellent performance, but tonight was the Aaron Estrada show.
The Hofstra grad transfer led all scorers in the game with 27, and he did it on an efficient 9-of-16 shooting from the floor. He scored 22 of his 27 in the first half, taking over the game when a few of Alabama's other typical contributors were struggling.
Estrada made six of his eight attempts from downtown, and making a variety of looks from contested stepbacks to catch-and-shoot transition shots. He also showcased how shifty he is as a ball handler, slithering his way through the defense for multiple tough finishes in the lane.
He's just another weapon capable of exploding for Alabama, which brings up my next point...
2. This offense has the potential to be one of the nation's best.
Scoring 100 points in a college basketball game isn't an easy feat. In fact, many college basketball teams go an entire season without being able to break 100 in a game.
But this Alabama team has done it twice, in its first two games. It's the first time since the 1964-65 season that the Crimson Tide has scored 100 points in consecutive games.
As the previous game showed and this game confirmed, Alabama has more offensive weapons at its disposal than it even knows what to do with.
Estrada led the way with 27, but both Nelson and Mark Sears added at least 20 of their own, with 20 and 24, respectively. Jarin Stevenson added 10 off the bench, and the Crimson Tide received contributions from plenty of other reserves as well.
"Both [Estrada and Sears] are capable of going for 20 in a half, easy," Oats said. "You got both of them in the backcourt, it's hard to focus on just one. You put your best defender on Aaron after he gets cooking like he did, you put your second best defender on Sears, that's going to be a problem, too."
Alabama made 13 of its 23 attempts from beyond the arc, and like Estrada's shot selection, they came off a variety of looks. Of course, there were catch-and-shoots off kickouts, but plenty of guys are capable of creating their own shots as well.
The craziest part? The offense didn't exactly seem to flow well for a decent portion of the game, in my opinion. Alabama turned it over 11 times, missed plenty of point-blank looks at the rim, missing around 20, and still was able to score triple-digits.
As this team continues to grow and gel from a chemistry standpoint, the flow of the offense is only going to get better and it's going to make it even more challenging for opposing teams to be able to guard them.
"It's scary for the other team, honestly," Estrada said. "I started out the game hot, then they started keying on me, and that allowed Mark and Grant to get off, that made everything easier for them."
3. Defensive issues looked effort-based.
I'm not in the locker room or the huddle, so I don't know what specific things Alabama was trying to do schematically. But what I do know, is that many of Alabama's defensive lapses over the course of the game looked to be based on effort and intensity.
The Sycamores scored 80 points in the game and shot over 51 percent from the floor, including scoring over one point per possession, which Oats noted after Monday's game is a mark that needs to drop lower for Alabama to play defense the way it wants to against high-majors.
Indiana State made 10 shots from deep in the game, many of which were wide open from what seemed like over-helping on the defensive end.
Players away from the ball looked unengaged at times, allowing three or four wide open backdoor cuts for layups or dunks.
"Our defense was not good again," Oats said. "We've got to do a way better job on defense."
Oats also cited blow-byes and rim protection as some key issues for the Crimson Tide defense, mentioning how the team misses the presence of Charles Bediako on the interior.
Alabama's next game will be back in Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday, facing South Alabama at 7 p.m. CT.
