Thoughts on Alabama defeating Missouri

[Jordan Harper]

Alabama strings together two home wins in a row knocking off #12 LSU and Duke.. I mean Missouri.

Look I know it seems like Missouri is the greatest team to walk the earth, but we showed they’re beatable. All joking aside, this was a huge win to pull out due to how this game played out and to avenge the loss earlier. Missouri figures everything out against Alabama, but Alabama picked up the defensive intensity and effort the last 10 minutes of the game and that was the difference. Alabama ended the game on a 30-9 run thanks to timely shots and forcing turnovers and tough shots.

JQ had a great second half scoring 13, Shack scored 21, and JD knocked down a few threes to score 17. Those 3 will be the difference in a lot of games as they have the most volume in terms of attempts and scoring. Britton Johnson even got some playing time and really fired the crowd and team up with his effort and motor. Obviously he’s a walk-on and won’t play much, but he showed the talented guys if he can do it, then so can you. Great move by Nate there.

Alabama travels to UGA next week and then comes back home to play Baylor. This is a big week for Alabama. They HAVE to beat Georgia and if they beat Baylor, then they have arguably the 3 best wins in the country.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

I hope this is a confidence builder as we head into next week! Maybe they needed to experience having to play hardnose D to generate some points. Who knows? RTR!

 

[vegas man]

They HAVE to beat Georgia

 

[frazor]

Thoughts on the "Q coming off of the bench" experiment @Harper41 ? Could be equally beneficial to Q and JD but it needs to click pretty quick no?

 

[pwestbro61]

Beating Baylor will be a tall order the way these guys are currently performing.

 

[D Isaiah T Billings-Clyde7]

In all seriousness on mizzou, they are a bad team that didn’t play bad against us lol. So frustrating when a bad teams lights it up from the floor on you. I know it’s partly bad defense at times but 50% from 3… come on. It’s not like they had layups all night. One time we had a block at the end of the shot clock and it went straight to their guy who threw it off the back board and in whole flailing away at the horn. Gotta love bball.

Not excusing our play just saying I don’t think we just played so bad mizzou looked good in their 2 games against us. I think mizzou just has some kind of weird confidence going against us

 

[aggietider]

I’ll take beating Baylor and Auburn at Auburn and have the best 4 wins in the country. But at this point, winning 1 out of Baylor, Auburn and Kentucky is a big deal.

 

[TideFever]

Good to win tonight but most of the game was a little too scary. Mizzou was making some wild shots even when we weren't playing that bad. For 30 minutes or so it felt like one of those games where even though some things were going right it didn't matter.

Oats seems to be about at wits end with this team's inability to go all out on defense and rebounds. To the point of playing energetic walkons early in the game to prove a point that we need more out of the guys getting most of the minutes.

It helped that we ended up with a great rebounding difference. We out rebounded them 44-30 and 23-14 for offensive rebounds. That was a big difference from the game up there where we were on the wrong side of 31-43.

The best part of the game was JD seeing some 3 point shots go down. 3/4 from 3 point. That's potentially HUGE if he is able to continue making a few every game. He didn't get many assists but he also didn't have half a dozen mind bogglingly awful turnovers.

Rojas also helped us at times with some huge put backs and rebounds. Most fans don't seem to like him playing but he gives the team something it didn't have for 2 months. He has a better feel for rebounding than anyone else on the team and he is big enough to give some presence in the paint.

The walkon Johnson that played just a few minutes early in the game got 3 offensive boards and a bucket. I'd love to see more of this if the team can't get moving early in games.

 

[aggietider]

Good to win tonight but most of the game was a little too scary. Mizzou was making some wild shots even when we weren't playing that bad. For 30 minutes or so it felt like one of those games where even though some things were going right it didn't matter.

Oats seems to be about at wits end with this team's inability to go all out on defense and rebounds. To the point of playing energetic walkons early in the game to prove a point that we need more out of the guys getting most of the minutes.

It helped that we ended up with a great rebounding difference. We out rebounded them 44-30 and 23-14 for offensive rebounds. That was a big difference from the game up there where we were on the wrong side of 31-43.

The best part of the game was JD seeing some 3 point shots go down. 3/4 from 3 point. That's potentially HUGE if he is able to continue making a few every game. He didn't get many assists but he also didn't have half a dozen mind bogglingly awful turnovers.

Rojas also helped us at times with some huge put backs and rebounds. Most fans don't seem to like him playing but he gives the team something it didn't have for 2 months. He has a better feel for rebounding than anyone else on the team and he is big enough to give some presence in the paint.

The walkon Johnson that played just a few minutes early in the game got 3 offensive boards and a bucket. I'd love to see more of this if the team can't get moving early in games.

Rojas is what he is but this team needs what he brings in terms off effort and intensity. Which also includes fouls and turnovers but we need him.

 

[frazor]

I’ll take beating Baylor and Auburn at Auburn and have the best 4 wins in the country. But at this point, winning 1 out of Baylor, Auburn and Kentucky is a big deal.

I'd say Bama has a 50% chance of beating Baylor and <1% chance of beating AU. Against LSU Ellis got pulled in the first 2.5 minutes for poor rebounding and the team's best player got benched for 8 minutes yesterday for poor effort. These aren't freshmen and I can't understand why these guys are never locked in from the opening tip. AU will show no mercy to a weak minded/willed Bama team. We'll see which Bama team shows up.

 

[Stratman59]

Loved the guys coming off the bench early. UGA is a MUST win!

 

[rsaxoniii]

I want to go back to the good ole days of missing free throws and making 3s.

 

[GOBAMA100]

Ellis needs to shoot at least 10shots per game .He continues to only have only 2-3 shots in the cold first halves of games. We to win the first 5 minutes of each half with him producing.

 

[pwestbro61]

Ellis needs to shoot at least 10shots per game .He continues to only have only 2-3 shots in the cold first halves of games. We to win the first 5 minutes of each half with him producing.

That is because of ball hogs Shack and Quinerly.

 

[aggietider]

That is because of ball hogs Shack and Quinerly.

That’s bc of the way we play on offense. They didn’t design the system. The ball is always in their hands bc all we do is run a high ball screen and occasionally run things for Shack. Ellis can’t go get a shot for himself like they can. And Ellis passes up open 3’s often, that’s on him.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

That’s bc of the way we play on offense. They didn’t design the system. The ball is always in their hands bc all we do is run a high ball screen and occasionally run things for Shack. Ellis can’t go get a shot for himself like they can. And Ellis passes up open 3’s often, that’s on him.

Truth! The others, including JD pass up open looks many times!

 

[Sweetlou2.0]

That is because of ball hogs Shack and Quinerly.

agree on shack but don’t understand Q being mentioned in that sentence

 

[pwestbro61]

That’s bc of the way we play on offense. They didn’t design the system. The ball is always in their hands bc all we do is run a high ball screen and occasionally run things for Shack. Ellis can’t go get a shot for himself like they can. And Ellis passes up open 3’s often, that’s on him.

True but they could feed Ellis more instead of going ISO all the time.

 

[aggietider]

True but they could feed Ellis more instead of going ISO all the time.

I’m all for it. More motion would and even sets for Ellis to get shots wouldn’t hurt a thing.

 

[StablerCountry]

One of three would be great between Baylor, Auburn and Kentucky. That is what we hoped for between Gonzaga, Houston and Memphis. In that stretch we won two and gave the appearance of being a true contender and then Bama just seemed to lose itself.
Right now this is a team built on shooting threes that don’t do it very well. Bama is a team that plays poor defense most of the time. Bama handles the ball sloppy and commits too many turnovers. Bama has lots of games where rebounding is just not there. Bama has lots of games with poor free throw shooting. Yet Bama is still in the race right now. If this team could just improve by 15 percent or not but 10 percent, they could make a good run. This week or so looms big.

 

[frazor]

That’s bc of the way we play on offense. They didn’t design the system. The ball is always in their hands bc all we do is run a high ball screen and occasionally run things for Shack. Ellis can’t go get a shot for himself like they can. And Ellis passes up open 3’s often, that’s on him.

Ellis seems to only be aggressive with his shot down 10 in the last 60 seconds. He has made several contested 3s this year to make games close.

 

[D Isaiah T Billings-Clyde7]

Agree on Ellis. He passes up a ton of shots and is maybe our best pure shooter. He can go on a heater too. I wonder why we don’t find more shots for him but he passes up so many opportunities it’s hard to blame the system

 

[Jordan Harper]

Ellis has kinda faded away at times in terms of production on both ends. I always thought he was our best overall player, but he just hasn’t found that motor yet to play consistently at a high level. It’ll come with more confidence.

 

[aggietider]

Ellis has kinda faded away at times in terms of production on both ends. I always thought he was our best overall player, but he just hasn’t found that motor yet to play consistently at a high level. It’ll come with more confidence.

The motor should be there regardless of the confidence. I really thought he’d be enough of what Herb was on defense and an upgrade on offense. But hasn’t really been either.

 

[jd82tide]

To beat the elite teams we gotta get hot from the outside. Need guys like Ellis, Gurley and Gary to knock some down. JQ and Shack need very good nights too to have a chance. This team can beat a #1 and also lose to a #155? Just gotta get hot.

 

[BeastofBourbon]

I'd say Bama has a 50% chance of beating Baylor and <1% chance of beating AU. Against LSU Ellis got pulled in the first 2.5 minutes for poor rebounding and the team's best player got benched for 8 minutes yesterday for poor effort. These aren't freshmen and I can't understand why these guys are never locked in from the opening tip. AU will show no mercy to a weak minded/willed Bama team. We'll see which Bama team shows up.

20% chance at best of beating Baylor, and the only reason I'd go that high is because it's at home. If we can go 1-2 in the gauntlet of Baylor, AU, and UK I'd say that's a big win. Wouldn't have said that 6 weeks ago though.

 

[vegas man]

20% chance at best of beating Baylor, and the only reason I'd go that high is because it's at home. If we can go 1-2 in the gauntlet of Baylor, AU, and UK I'd say that's a big win. Wouldn't have said that 6 weeks ago though.

Should've beat the Barn at home when we had the chance.

 

[frazor]

20% chance at best of beating Baylor, and the only reason I'd go that high is because it's at home. If we can go 1-2 in the gauntlet of Baylor, AU, and UK I'd say that's a big win. Wouldn't have said that 6 weeks ago though.

Being at home and playing an unfamiliar opponent helps Bama here just as it did against Houston and at Gonzaga. One thing that folks keep forgetting about this season with these "bad" losses is that teams have circled the calendar when Bama comes to town following last season. Opponents are amped up for some payback. Not the case with OOC opponents. Baylor may very well destroy the Tide but I like our chances a little better than most. Plus this team just seems to play up against better teams.

 

[Sassy12]

They play to the level of the opponent. Well against good teams and poor against bad teams. Makes me think we need a sports psychologist on speed dial. No team concept just individuals playing pick up. If they don’t need the sports psychologist, I may after this season.