The Stat Where Alabama Basketball, Arizona Are Polar Opposites

Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats is set to go head-to-head with the AP No. 1 team in the country for the eighth time in his career, but Arizona is far from the top in a certain stat category.

For the past couple of years, the Crimson Tide has been among the best in the country in points per game and pace. The speed at which Alabama plays leads to a burst of three-point attempts, as its 325 this season rank 12th in the country.

While Alabama has played one more game than the Wildcats, Arizona's 129 three-point attempts are the third-fewest in college basketball. On a per-game scale, Alabama is third in the country with 36.1, while the Wildcats' 16.0 are 362nd out of 365.

"It's one of those deals where you have totally different philosophies and still win," Oats told The Next Round on Wednesday morning. "[Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd] gets his guys to play hard, they're tough, they're physical, but very distinctly different philosophies. We just took 57 threes in our last game. You double that and that's what they've got in eight games, pretty much. They're taking 16 a game. We took 16 before the second media timeout last game, I think.

"We're going to need to hit a few. We're more than capable of hitting a lot. Everybody is going to try to take us off the three-point line, I'm sure they'll try to do the same thing. They do a pretty good job defensively and they're super physical and they try to take you out on what you do. We spread the floor out a lot more than them, they try to pound it inside, but they do a good job."

Oats mentioned that Arizona five-star freshman Koa Peat is a "real matchup problem," and he said the same for Wildcats 7-foot-2 center Motiejus Krivas. Additionally, despite its emphasis inside the arc, Arizona squeaks inside the top 100 of college basketball in possessions per game with 74.1 (Alabama is 15th with 78.7).

"They're going to score some twos," Oats said. We understand it. We're going to have to score some threes and some twos, both. The interesting thing with them is a lot of the post-up teams will play very slow and methodical. They actually play pretty fast. They try to run it up your throat."

Another big reason to watch this No. 12 vs. No. 1 clash in Birmingham on Saturday night is due to the reunion between Alabama and Arizona guard Jaden Bradley. The former five-star recruit spent his freshman 2022-23 season with the Crimson Tide, but transferred to the Wildcats and has been with the program ever since. Bradley is averaging 14.5 points this season and has played a major role in the Wildcats' pace.

"Jaden Bradley, who was great for us, we were the No. 1 overall seed and he started the majority of the games that year. He understands how to play fast. He'll push the ball. He'll get it in the paint before the bigs get down there if you don't get your defense set. So they do a really good job of playing fast and playing inside once they get in the halfcourt.

"We've got to do a great job in transition. We've got to do a great job in our post-D. We've got to do a great job of keeping the ball out on drives and we've got to rebound it. The defensive rebounding on our end is going to be a big deal."

The Stat Where Alabama Basketball, Arizona Are Polar Opposites

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