Sorry about the delay on this! But I figured I'd throw a couple of additional thoughts from the Missouri game before Alabama looks for a rebound this afternoon.
— I'm really interested to see if Oats' strategy of going very light at practice the last two days fixes the slow start today. Safe to say it was a lethargic first few minutes but overall I liked the lineup choice. I think Labaron Philon, especially being back healthy, has an excellent effect on offense by not putting all of the primary scoring AND playmaking duties on Mark Sears and letting him do more off-ball stuff. Alabama needs Chris Youngblood to find his shotmaking flow again, but Philon being out there pairs another creative guard next to Sears that could free Youngblood to focus on spot-up shooting. Sears is also still awesome and Wednesday was a great reminder of that. He's averaging nearly 20 points and five assists per game since the LSU benching.
— The ball movement was so much better than it was against Auburn. After Alabama figured out Mizzou's high ball pressure I thought things on that end were fine. The starts just have to be fixed, plain and simple. Can't have so many turnovers out of the gate and none of these remaining teams on Alabama's schedule will let it overcome a big deficit in the first few minutes. Kentucky is a good opportunity to keep that offensive momentum going. The Wildcats are in the 60s in defensive rating.
— If fatigue really was the problem, it would help explain one of the worst defensive performances of the season. Give Missouri some credit, I thought the Tigers were a bad matchup for Alabama because of their scoring balance and they have so many different ways to hurt teams. But Alabama didn't need to be perfect defensively Wednesday night — just string together enough stops but it didn't happen. The ball screen defense was the biggest thing for me. For two games now, defenders aren't staying level with shooters or doing a good job fighting through screens. The communication was awful (missed switches, assignments, etc) and that can't happen against offenses of Missouri's (or Kentucky's) caliber.
— We'll see how Alabama responds defensively, especially with this presumed extra rest. I'm not expecting a masterclass against a good UK offense, but I don't think Alabama's defense is a lost cause either. It was posted a bunch during the game and I completely agree with y'all that this team misses Derrion Reid dearly. He's one of the most versatile defenders and Alabama's needed him against the Longer Mizzou guards. We'll see how his injury saga goes moving forward but until then Oats and Co has to figure out a scheme with the absence of Reid.
— I liked what I saw from Aiden Sherrell in his six minutes. Grabbed a couple of boards — more than most can say in an area Alabama needed to dominate and didn't — got an assist, hit a 3 and got to the free-throw line. I don't think Oats is going to do anything drastic when it comes to Alabama's frontcourt and Clifford Omoruyi is still a key part that. But I think Sherrell has earned the chance to get some more minutes going forward and see how much he could potentially make a difference in postseason play.
More thoughts on the last two games below. Will have plenty of coverage of the Kentucky game later today!
Alabama is in search of answers after back-to-back losses.
alabama.rivals.com
