The Huddle that Triggered Alabama's End-of-Half Run in Win Over Seton Hall

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball was headed down the wrong path early against Seton Hall.

Sure, it was only the first half, but those opening 15 minutes were very worrisome for Alabama. UA was shooting 24 percent from the field at the time, and had the game ended at that moment, it would have been the lowest field goal percentage of the Nate Oats era.

The Tide trailed 28-22, which may not seem like much, but when a team — specifically one of the most prolific offenses in America over the past few years — only converts six field goal attempts, there's a reasonable cause for concern. Additionally, dating back to last season, Seton Hall only allowed 80 points twice and was giving up an average of 54.7 points through three contests.

The final media timeout of the first half came with 4:15 remaining. Oats sat his team down, and when the halftime buzzer sounded, Alabama held a 38-32 lead — ending the period on a 16-0 run. So, what went down in that huddle?

"We weren't playing up to our standard," Alabama guard Amari Allen said after the game. "I don't think we played up to our standard, pretty much the whole game. We built a lead a couple of times, we've got to get better at that and keeping the lead."

The run started with four consecutive free throws between guards Aden Holloway and Qayden Samuels. Jaxon Richardson then got the Coleman Coliseum crowd on its feet with a dunk to tie the game at 28. [Oats] was just trying to get on us, getting us to go. I feel like we did have some stretches throughout the game where we really struggled. We should've been more consistent with that the whole game.

Allen withdrew from the 2026 NBA Draft for a variety of reasons, including that scouts wanted him to have the ball in his hands more. The reigning SEC Player of the Week has put that on full display this season, and it was just as evident during the end-of-half run.

After Holloway, Samuels and Richardson's contributions to the scoreboard, Allen went on an 8-0 run by himself: two layups, one of which being an and-1 conversion, and a three-pointer.

Crimson Tide fans were loving every second. It's like they didn't want the first half to end. After hitting a quarter of its shots, Alabama registered an 11 percent increase from the field within four minutes. UA even had an exclamation point via a buzzer-beating paint jumper by Holloway.

"I feel like I got the right crew in, finally," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "It's hard playing 11 guys. I needed a hard-playing group that was going to get some stops and quit turning the ball over.

"So one, I'm trying to divvy up these minutes, it's hard. Some of the guys made it easier on me tonight by either the way they played or their attitudes on the bench. You're just not going to play if you do that, but we got the right group in there. And then I think the effort, we got to play harder.

"Off the top of my head, I kind of just said, 'Look, man, like our offense, really our defense wasn't that bad in my opinion. Our offense was a total train wreck at the time. So stop turning the ball over, move the ball. We got to get on the O-boards. We got to create some offense off our defense, get it going. I think we were able to do all that."

It may sound silly to take a deep dive into a run during the first half, but the second period was fairly even between the Crimson Tide and the Pirates. Seton Hall actually won the half by a 44-38 score and pulled within three points multiple times.

Mathematically speaking, if Alabama doesn't go on that 16-0 run, Oats and company are on the wrong end of a home upset. Instead, the Crimson Tide won 82-76, advancing its record to 4-0 on the young season.

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