Opening statement…
“It’s another tough game. That’s four in a row we’ve had come down to the wire, coming off a hard-fought win Wednesday against Auburn. A&M made us play hard for this one, which we expected, and we just didn’t quite have enough. They were ready to go, we weren’t. We can’t keep coming out of the gate and getting down double digits in the first half. I think that’s three straight games we’ve been down double digits in the first half. I thought our effort was decent. We just had too many turnovers, couldn’t make a shot, too many mistakes on defense. They came ready to play. It turned out to be a great game for the fans. But a lot of things we didn’t do well. We fouled them too much, turned it over 18 times. They were 27-of-28 at the free-throw line. It’s not a recipe for a win. We’re gonna get our guys refocused. We’re still the No. 1 seed for the SEC Tournament. We’ll bounce back and be ready to play on Friday.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Like many teams who have dropped a game through the college basketball season, when things go awry it gets ugly. For Alabama, it had an ugly shooting night coupled with a multitude of turnovers and didn’t score more points off the fastbreak despite being one of the fastest teams in the country. According to the KenPom rankings, the Crimson Tide still holds the second-fastest tempo in the country, but it couldn’t seem to stretch its offensive wings against a Texas A&M defense that ranks No. 35 in the nation.
On how much turnovers limited the team today…
“A lot. I thought we played passive because we turned it over. Their press slowed the game down. That’s not how we want to play. Then when you turn it over, you start to play even more passive, which is kind of a snowball effect. I thought Quinerly got us going there in the second half. We got some stops. We were able to get out in transition, which if you’re not going against that press the whole time, I think you’re better off. But turnovers killed us. They were bad, and some of them were just not real smart plays.”
Benny’s Breakdown: After capturing its second SEC regular-season title in the last three seasons, there was a thought that Alabama may play a bit looser after Wednesday. Maybe the team was too loose, especially when the team had the ball in its hands. The Crimson Tide recorded 18 turnovers in the loss, marking seven-straight games it has tallied 10 or more. It’s also the most times Alabama has coughed it up 15 or more times where it resulted in a loss.
On Brandon Miller’s three fouls over the last four minutes…
“The last one was a tough play. The kid trips – I haven’t been able to look at the video, so I’m not gonna say one way or the other. He’s aggressive. He puts himself in tough spots sometimes. Some of those go one or the other, the blocked charge, but I don’t think the referees are trying to favor one team or another. The calls just went against us the last couple of minutes, and we’ve gotta deal with it. And they could have all been correct calls. I’ll look at it on a video and get a better idea on some of that. But we’ve gotta be better through the course of the game and not leave it up to refs’ calls in the last two minutes.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Brandon Miller led the second-half charge with nine points, five rebounds and two assists. If not for fouling out late in the final frame, Miller may have led Alabama to its fourth-consecutive comeback win. It wasn’t an efficient day for the freshman phenom, but only three players shot above 40% in the loss. However, those three players took three shots or less against the Aggies. Miller still finished with a double-double despite shooting so poorly, but Alabama cannot rely solely on Miller for offense as it heads into the SEC Championship tournament.
On why the team has been able to snap out of slow starts; what needs to change…
“We’ve got a tough, resilient group that even when they get down kind of get it back together. I don’t think we’re aggressive enough on offense. We’re turning the ball over too much early. If we the exact answer, I’d try to fix it. I’m not sure, but we’re gonna talk about it and see if we can’t – and the coaching staff’s gotta do a better job getting our guys ready to play out of the gate, too. Sometimes they settle in and start to play better through the game. We’ve gotta figure out a way to get them more prepared at the beginning. We’ve been struggling on both sides of the ball early. Offensively, it’s been a major problem, though. I think the last two games, we’ve had two and three points after the first media timeout, which is not how we wanna be playing. We’ve gotta do a better job prepping them with how to attack, what they’re gonna do defensively to start the game.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Alabama's struggles can actually be boiled down to a number. The team had .871 points per possession, marking its most inefficient offensive performance this season. After what felt like months of seeing Alabama finally get into a rhythm that would carry it through March, it seems like it's spiraling at the wrong time. Outside of Miller, Jahvon Quinerly and Noah Clowney, there wasn’t another player who scored more than 10 points. Charles Bediako was the closest with six points.
“It’s another tough game. That’s four in a row we’ve had come down to the wire, coming off a hard-fought win Wednesday against Auburn. A&M made us play hard for this one, which we expected, and we just didn’t quite have enough. They were ready to go, we weren’t. We can’t keep coming out of the gate and getting down double digits in the first half. I think that’s three straight games we’ve been down double digits in the first half. I thought our effort was decent. We just had too many turnovers, couldn’t make a shot, too many mistakes on defense. They came ready to play. It turned out to be a great game for the fans. But a lot of things we didn’t do well. We fouled them too much, turned it over 18 times. They were 27-of-28 at the free-throw line. It’s not a recipe for a win. We’re gonna get our guys refocused. We’re still the No. 1 seed for the SEC Tournament. We’ll bounce back and be ready to play on Friday.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Like many teams who have dropped a game through the college basketball season, when things go awry it gets ugly. For Alabama, it had an ugly shooting night coupled with a multitude of turnovers and didn’t score more points off the fastbreak despite being one of the fastest teams in the country. According to the KenPom rankings, the Crimson Tide still holds the second-fastest tempo in the country, but it couldn’t seem to stretch its offensive wings against a Texas A&M defense that ranks No. 35 in the nation.
On how much turnovers limited the team today…
“A lot. I thought we played passive because we turned it over. Their press slowed the game down. That’s not how we want to play. Then when you turn it over, you start to play even more passive, which is kind of a snowball effect. I thought Quinerly got us going there in the second half. We got some stops. We were able to get out in transition, which if you’re not going against that press the whole time, I think you’re better off. But turnovers killed us. They were bad, and some of them were just not real smart plays.”
Benny’s Breakdown: After capturing its second SEC regular-season title in the last three seasons, there was a thought that Alabama may play a bit looser after Wednesday. Maybe the team was too loose, especially when the team had the ball in its hands. The Crimson Tide recorded 18 turnovers in the loss, marking seven-straight games it has tallied 10 or more. It’s also the most times Alabama has coughed it up 15 or more times where it resulted in a loss.
On Brandon Miller’s three fouls over the last four minutes…
“The last one was a tough play. The kid trips – I haven’t been able to look at the video, so I’m not gonna say one way or the other. He’s aggressive. He puts himself in tough spots sometimes. Some of those go one or the other, the blocked charge, but I don’t think the referees are trying to favor one team or another. The calls just went against us the last couple of minutes, and we’ve gotta deal with it. And they could have all been correct calls. I’ll look at it on a video and get a better idea on some of that. But we’ve gotta be better through the course of the game and not leave it up to refs’ calls in the last two minutes.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Brandon Miller led the second-half charge with nine points, five rebounds and two assists. If not for fouling out late in the final frame, Miller may have led Alabama to its fourth-consecutive comeback win. It wasn’t an efficient day for the freshman phenom, but only three players shot above 40% in the loss. However, those three players took three shots or less against the Aggies. Miller still finished with a double-double despite shooting so poorly, but Alabama cannot rely solely on Miller for offense as it heads into the SEC Championship tournament.
On why the team has been able to snap out of slow starts; what needs to change…
“We’ve got a tough, resilient group that even when they get down kind of get it back together. I don’t think we’re aggressive enough on offense. We’re turning the ball over too much early. If we the exact answer, I’d try to fix it. I’m not sure, but we’re gonna talk about it and see if we can’t – and the coaching staff’s gotta do a better job getting our guys ready to play out of the gate, too. Sometimes they settle in and start to play better through the game. We’ve gotta figure out a way to get them more prepared at the beginning. We’ve been struggling on both sides of the ball early. Offensively, it’s been a major problem, though. I think the last two games, we’ve had two and three points after the first media timeout, which is not how we wanna be playing. We’ve gotta do a better job prepping them with how to attack, what they’re gonna do defensively to start the game.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Alabama's struggles can actually be boiled down to a number. The team had .871 points per possession, marking its most inefficient offensive performance this season. After what felt like months of seeing Alabama finally get into a rhythm that would carry it through March, it seems like it's spiraling at the wrong time. Outside of Miller, Jahvon Quinerly and Noah Clowney, there wasn’t another player who scored more than 10 points. Charles Bediako was the closest with six points.
