Three Takeaways From Alabama Basketball's Win Over Texas A&M
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Oddly enough, before Saturday Alabama had never beaten Texas A&M during the regular season in Nate Oats' tenure.
It was a full day inside Coleman Coliseum. Nick Saban sat courtside, the 2004 Elite Eight team was honored at halftime, program alumni on their NBA All-Star break in Noah Clowney and Herb Jones came to show their support.
After 40 minutes, the 15th-ranked Crimson Tide dominated, coming out on top by a final score of 100-75. Here are some of my thoughts from the game:
1. Mark Sears is the most underrated player in America.
Before the game, ESPN's College GameDay did a segment celebrating the fact that it's the NBA's All-Star weekend. The GameDay crew got to pick its own all-star team of college basketball players, and the production gave them 20 players in the country to choose from.
None of those 20 were Mark Sears.
Sure, it wasn't an official list or award, but it just adds to the disrespect that Sears has gotten from the college basketball world throughout this season. He's already been left of the Bob Cousy Award finalist list for the best point guard in the country.
To add to it, he was left off the Wooden Award late season list for the top player in college basketball.
And funnily enough, if you look at ESPN's all-star player pool, Sears averages more points than all but two of the players listed. And he once again put on a show on Saturday.
Sears finished the game with 23 points, his eighth consecutive 20-point game, and his 16th game of at least 20 points this season. That passes Brandon Miller's mark of 15 last season, and ties Collin Sexton's 16 from back in 2018.
The fact of the matter is, Sears is not only playing at an All-SEC level, but an SEC Player of the Year and All-American level. And he has been all season.
He currently leads the SEC in scoring at 20.5 points per game, and does so on incredibly efficient shooting splits. He shoots 51.3 percent from the floor, 44.4 percent from beyond the arc, and over 85 percent from the free throw line.
"Bucket-getter. There ain't much else to say," Sears' teammate Latrell Wrightsell said of him after the game.
The bucket-getter part is right. But where Wrightsell is wrong is that there should be more said. Not from him, but from the entire college basketball community about the season Mark Sears is having.
If there's a more underrated player in all of college basketball, please tell me. You'd be hard-pressed to find one.
2. The offense covered up another deficiency.
One week ago in Baton Rouge, Alabama's defense struggled pretty heavily. The team allowed 92 points on the road to a team that sits outside the top 80 in KenPom's offensive efficiency metric.
But none of that mattered, because Alabama's offense is really good, and they decided to make a bunch of shots and score 109 points.
Well, a similar thing happened against Texas A&M.
This time, it wasn't Alabama's deficiencies on the defensive end of the floor. The defense wasn't perfect, but the Crimson Tide actually played a solid defensive game coming off the bye week.
Instead, it was the rebounding. Texas A&M is one of the best rebounding teams in the country, especially on the offensive end, and it showed. The Aggies outrebounded Alabama by 11 for the game, including a 26-14 advantage on the offensive glass. Texas A&M was able to score 21 points off offensive rebounds.
Typically, the team that wins the rebounding battle wins the game. Even more typically, a team with a plus-12 edge on the offensive glass wins the game, but that didn't happen here.
Why? Because Alabama's offense is really, really good.
It didn't matter when Texas A&M would get second- and third-chance looks, because seemingly every time on the other end a different Alabama player was hitting a three.
All it takes is a couple empty possessions on the offense end and Nate Oats' offense will put an 8-0 run on you in 45 seconds and you'll be down double figures.
The runs that Alabama is able to go on thanks to the offense capabilities of so many players puts enormous pressure on opposing offenses to score each and every time down the floor.
And when you're playing in Coleman Coliseum, like I'm about to talk about in my next point, that pressure can seem insurmountable.
3. Coleman Coliseum has become an elite home court advantage.
Rupp, Neville, Bud Walton, Thompson-Boling. The SEC has some well-known and elite home court advantages.
As of late, it might be time to start listing Coleman Coliseum up there with that list.
Over the past two seasons, Alabama has lost just one game at home, a 27-1 record. That marks the best home record in the SEC in that timeframe, with Auburn and Tennessee both having two extra losses.
The last time the Crimson Tide lost a home game in SEC play was in February of 2022, almost two years ago.
Since Nate Oats arrived in Tuscaloosa, Alabama has only lost 10 total games inside Coleman Coliseum. Five of those 10 games came in Oats' first season, meaning only five losses at home since.
Not only is the record astonishing, but the way Alabama has beaten teams has been jaw-dropping as well. Once again going back to the past two seasons, Alabama has beaten SEC teams by at least 20 points 10 different times. Three of those times have been by at least 40 points.
Bruce Pearl said it best after this year's Alabama-Auburn game in Tuscaloosa.
"They're gonna run people out of here a lot."
Coleman may be outdated, and there's not denying Alabama is in need of a better arena. But when it's full and rocking and the 3-ball is falling, there's a good chance you're getting run out of the gym.
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