Opening Statement…
“March, survive and advance, I think that's what we did. It was a good offensive game. Our defense has to get a lot better by Saturday. It was nice to come out and make some shots. I was happy to see Mark. He's been in the gym working a lot since the SEC weekend. It showed. I thought he came out, shot it really well. Four straight game Trey's -- JQ started. He started out with early leads in all of them. Kind of changed the narrative of that. We were up 9-zip this game, I think. If you combine our total starts it was 48-18 these last four games. It's nicer to play with a lead from the beginning. We had 21 assists tonight. I think the ball has been moving. Shows how unselfish our guys are. Over the last four games, averaging 19 assists a game. Even when we haven't been shooting it well, we have been getting assists and able to get them at the rim. 15 made 3's toady day. Second most in Alabama history for an NCAA Tournament game. So we have been making shots at a pretty high level. It was nice to be able to put up 96 without Brandon scoring a point. He's got a groin injury that he's been nursing since Sunday in the SEC Tournament. We were trying to play him limited minutes. We were able to keep him under 20. Hopefully, he can get a lot of rehab today and tomorrow and look a lot more like himself on Saturday. Proud of our guys. I thought we could have done a better job defensively at times in the game. I thought Tennyson -- got to give those guys a lot of credit. They kept playing. Kept fighting. They had a great start to the second half. I believe Tennyson had 0 at half and ended up with 20 in the second half. Wasn't great for our defense. We'll be better against Maryland; we are going to have to be or we won't get a win. Great to move to the second round. None of these tournament games are supposed to be easy.”
Benny’s Breakdown: It’s wild to think Alabama wracked up 96 points with no offensive contribution from Brandon Miller. The freshman phenom didn’t register a point on Thursday marking the first time in his Alabama career that has happened but also the second time he’s scored 10 points or less this season. Thankfully, Nick Pringle and Mark Sears, two guys Alabama hasn’t received a bunch of scoring from recently, came up big against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. While it wasn’t something Alabama needed per se as the game was in hand by halftime, it was important for the team to rely on depth early as it will need a collective effort to get to Houston.
On Mark Sears’ performance against TAMU-CC…
“I think it's really big. He's been our second-leading scorer all year. Even when he was struggling we continued to play him heavy minutes, because I think he adds a lot to the team, even when he's not making shots. He's tough, he's had games where he's been one of the scrappiest, toughest, perimeter defenders out there. He adds that to the mix. So I thought he played really hard there after the timeout in the second half, he came out and I thought his effort was really good. So you know, we're going to have him out there because we know he can score. Other teams know he's capable of scoring at a high level. Teams can't sag him. He's going to give spacing on the floor. So to have him go ahead and make a lot of shots certainly helps because he can be on the floor. I was really happy to see those ones going in. Finished 3 of 4 from three. He's capable -- all of our players expect all their shots to go in. The way he shot it all summer and in the fall, he didn't miss any open threes. I was happy to see that. Hopefully, he gets his confidence going and we'll see more of the same in the Second Round.”
Benny’s Breakdown: With Miller struggling to find his rhythm, Alabama needed its second-leading scorer to make an impact. That’s exactly what Mark Sears did on Thursday tallying 15 points on 4 of 5 shooting. Sears struggled during the SEC Tournament, scoring a combined 15 points in three games at Bridgestone Arena. His most productive game was against Missouri where he scored nine points but shot 11% from deep. Against the Islanders, Sears shot 75% from behind the 3-point line which allowed Jahvon Quinerly, Nick Pringle and Nimari Burnett to find their rhythms as they all scored 10 points or more.
On Noah Gurley’s leadership…
“He's been great. He's been one of our leaders. Two out of the four last regular season games, he didn't play in. He was still the guy talking to everybody every timeout. Leading the locker room. So we started that SEC Tournament Mississippi State, they play a lot bigger. So we went with him and he played well. We continued to go with him. I think that's four straight games -- he's at 19 and a half minutes. I would have gone more minutes. He gets stiff. He's a little older, his body gets a little stiff. He would have been over 20 minutes four straight games if I hadn't sit him there for a while. He got a little stiff there. Shooting 2-for-2 from three, 3 assists, no turnovers, 8 points, 4 rebounds. Pretty good night in 19 and a half minutes. But his leadership has been great all year, and it's a big reason why we're as tight, and chemistry is as good, and guys are pulling for each other as much as they are.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Noah Gurley has been a quiet contributor for most of the season, but over the last two weeks, Gurley continues to be called upon for crucial minutes. At the SEC Tournament, the senior averaged six points per game, highlighted by his 11-point outburst against Mississippi State in the first round of the SEC Tournament. On Thursday, Gurley was very effective off of the bench and was one of the major contributors to the team’s 49 bench points. The Crimson Tide will need more of Gurley’s consistency if it looks to advance past Maryland on Saturday.
On the quick turnaround for the Maryland game…
“We do things a little bit different. We don't divvy up the scouts between assistants. Charlie has always got our defensive scout, and Pettway always has the offensive scout. And they have their small army of people that help them. So we got Maryland ready to roll. Charlie is probably looking at it right now. They will get me the edits right away. I will look at the edits they have already got done. And I will get to the games. I will look at the edits first. Get a pretty good idea of what's going on. I will watch as many games as I can. With this short turn around, you can't watch a ton of them. That's why I rely on Derek, our video coordinators on the defensive side of the ball. They have a couple GAs. A lot of those guys have already got a lot of that stuff broke down. Charlie does an unbelievable job on the defensive side. They will have that ready. I will sit down with that side of the ball and they will show me what they got. I will sit down with the offensive side of the ball. Adam Bauman helps Pettway. They got GAs and people helping them. And Maryland's got some different matchup zone. They switch it. We're going to have to figure out how to attack them too. We spend probably equal time on defense and offense because those separate people are really locked in. Bryan is working with Pino on personnel, more on the defensive side. So they will kind of give me a quick rundown of their personnel. And I'll get as quick of an idea of what they have as I can. And we're going to show video of the team tonight. They will get out of here, rest, get with Clark, or trainer, rehab, at dinner tonight we'll show them the first edits. Tomorrow morning we'll show them more. We'll have a short practice because you know we just played today and we play tomorrow. And show more video tomorrow. And we'll wake up Saturday morning, show them a quick game-day edit, and be ready to roll.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Now comes the grind of the college basketball season. Normally, Alabama will have two days to prep for its next opponent. It won’t get that luxury as it gets ready to face Maryland who staved off an upset against West Virginia. The Terapins are the No. 33 offense and the No. 34 defense according to KenPom who played the role of spoiler during Big 10 play. Maryland picked up three ranked wins over Purdue, Ohio State and Indiana. While it only lasted two days at the conference tournament, the Terapins put forth a gritty effort to down the Mountaineers. Alabama will need to bring ample hard hats if it looks to advance to Louisville next week.
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