1) That is what you call a backbreaking loss. A game that Alabama should never lose based on Tennessee’s recent struggles and being at home. You can point at Tennessee shooting 32 free throws compared to Alabama’s 8 but that is a testament to Tennessee being aggressive. It’s easy to see on tape that Alabama cannot Hurd the perimeter and they were driving all day and dishing to the bigs. Fulkerson has a field day getting Alabama’s bigs in foul trouble. You know it was bad when Forbes was playing center. Alabama played well early on building a 15 point lead, but they faded late as they have been because of lack of depth. Losing Herb was significant both on defense and the depth, but most importantly on defense. Alabama doesn’t have the versatility defensively to match up, so I would suggest them playing more zone.
2) John Petty and Kira Lewis have been in a rut. Turning it over, not shooting it well, turning it over. Did I mention turning it over? They’ve averaged 10 turnovers a game COMBINED the past two weeks. I’m not sure what is wrong with those 2 besides Petty being in the dog house. They need their leaders to stand up and take charge and they aren’t doing it. You can tell Oats is doing everything he can to get this team fired up and focus. He is extremely frustrated.
3) Alabama travels to Athens on Saturday to take down arguably a worse team in Georgia. If Alabama loses that game, you can put a fork in their NCAA tournament chances barring an SEC Championship. At this point, Alabama needs to play for pride and focus on getting better. You can’t help injuries but you can control your play on the court.
2) John Petty and Kira Lewis have been in a rut. Turning it over, not shooting it well, turning it over. Did I mention turning it over? They’ve averaged 10 turnovers a game COMBINED the past two weeks. I’m not sure what is wrong with those 2 besides Petty being in the dog house. They need their leaders to stand up and take charge and they aren’t doing it. You can tell Oats is doing everything he can to get this team fired up and focus. He is extremely frustrated.
3) Alabama travels to Athens on Saturday to take down arguably a worse team in Georgia. If Alabama loses that game, you can put a fork in their NCAA tournament chances barring an SEC Championship. At this point, Alabama needs to play for pride and focus on getting better. You can’t help injuries but you can control your play on the court.
