Thoughts on Davidson Loss

[Jordan Harper]

I was unable to watch the Davidson game live as I took my family on a little getaway to Huntsville for the night. I followed the score periodically and went back and watched it, and man Alabama’s defense is struggling to say the least.

Alabama typically wears teams down with their pace of play and that affects the other team on offense and Alabama can play off of that defensively. Pair that with losing Herb Jones ( SEC POY and SEC DPOY) and they’re hurting. Herb Jones covered up problems defensively more than what we realized. Now that Alabama doesn’t have that guy who will shut down a teams best player then it forces everyone to lock down and they just don’t have anyone doing that. When Alabama locks in, they can be a great defensive team but what Oats said is true that they’re not doing that.

Offensively the book is out on how to stop Alabama and that’s to slow them down and force them to play half court. If you remember, last year in the non conference Alabama was slow offensively and then started running sets come conference play and took off. Will that happen again? I think Oats will have plans ready to attack offensively. You don’t want to show everything in non conference. Houston and Gonzaga had an awful plan of trying to run with Alabama when nobody in the country can do that and expect to win. It took two of the best coaches in college basketball and future HoFers to figure that out.

Now all of it doesn’t fall on the players. Oats has shown that he is not a great in game adjuster, but I can see signs of him getting better. It’s a faster game in the SEC so HES had to adjust more. I have no doubt he will get it turned around.

It’s amazing how the losses makes us forget the wins right? People don’t even remember beating Gonzaga on the road (basically) and beating an elite Houston team. With great success comes great expectations, and I wouldn’t trade high expectations for low for anything. It’s a different era of Bama basketball now. Time for SEC play!

 

[ATLSwag17]

Did not like Oats comments about being “an average team” today. I get the frustration, but you have to overcome it. Falling right into the Mullen comparisons. I get reaching the team, but I don’t like that kind of messaging. Needs some notes from Saban on how to use public messaging to reach the team. Saban never makes negative comments without mentioning potential or the mindset we should have.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

I don't have a problem with his message. Sometimes you must tell it like it is. We were below average to me. Oats runs a version of "The System" on offense. A lot of our points depend on transition offense that is created by missed shots (good rebounding required) and good defense. Right now, we are playing offense generated by alternate possessions. You can't trade baskets, play alternate possession basketball and win. We are below average in both rebounding and playing good defense.

 

[budog]

Did not like Oats comments about being “an average team” today. I get the frustration, but you have to overcome it. Falling right into the Mullen comparisons. I get reaching the team, but I don’t like that kind of messaging. Needs some notes from Saban on how to use public messaging to reach the team. Saban never makes negative comments without mentioning potential or the mindset we should have.

Certainly understand where you are coming from, but I have zero problems with CNO telling the truth about us being an average team. I realize that we live in a coddling society now, but our guys are big boys and I am quite sure if we asked the players about last nights performance the word average would have been behind sucked and terrible. I believe we have a damn good basketball team that will go in the 13-6 to 12-7 range in our remaining 19 regular season games.

ROLL TIDE!!!!

 

[budog]

I don't have a problem with his message. Sometimes you must tell it like it is. We were below average to me. Oats runs a version of "The System" on offense. A lot of our points depend on transition offense that is created by missed shots (good rebounding required) and good defense. Right now, we are playing offense generated by alternate possessions. You can't trade baskets, play alternate possession basketball and win. We are below average in both rebounding and playing good defense.

Great post, agree 100%.
ROLL TIDE!!!!

 

[JamH]

I was unable to watch the Davidson game live as I took my family on a little getaway to Huntsville for the night. I followed the score periodically and went back and watched it, and man Alabama’s defense is struggling to say the least.

Alabama typically wears teams down with their pace of play and that affects the other team on offense and Alabama can play off of that defensively. Pair that with losing Herb Jones ( SEC POY and SEC DPOY) and they’re hurting. Herb Jones covered up problems defensively more than what we realized. Now that Alabama doesn’t have that guy who will shut down a teams best player then it forces everyone to lock down and they just don’t have anyone doing that. When Alabama locks in, they can be a great defensive team but what Oats said is true that they’re not doing that.

Offensively the book is out on how to stop Alabama and that’s to slow them down and force them to play half court. If you remember, last year in the non conference Alabama was slow offensively and then started running sets come conference play and took off. Will that happen again? I think Oats will have plans ready to attack offensively. You don’t want to show everything in non conference. Houston and Gonzaga had an awful plan of trying to run with Alabama when nobody in the country can do that and expect to win. It took two of the best coaches in college basketball and future HoFers to figure that out.

Now all of it doesn’t fall on the players. Oats has shown that he is not a great in game adjuster, but I can see signs of him getting better. It’s a faster game in the SEC so HES had to adjust more. I have no doubt he will get it turned around.

It’s amazing how the losses makes us forget the wins right? People don’t even remember beating Gonzaga on the road (basically) and beating an elite Houston team. With great success comes great expectations, and I wouldn’t trade high expectations for low for anything. It’s a different era of Bama basketball now. Time for SEC play!

The Houston game appears to have clipped the sails and taken something out of this team. Right now we're a different team from the one we watched against Gonzaga and Houston. Actually it started to show in the Houston game. The three games after the tough, close win against Houston have been ugly and uninspired basketball. Teams are extending their defense and making it much tougher to get good looks on 3-pt shots and it is causing our half court offense to look somewhat discombobulated. Hopefully we'll claw our way out of this slump as the team enters conference play.

 

[cconner01]

What the Hell is going on with this team the last 3 games??

 

[D Isaiah T Billings-Clyde7]

Been an up and down season so far really. Thought we looked outstanding 3 of the first 4 games. South Alabama have us some issues. Then we were out of sorts against Iona and Drake, then we play 3 games that made us look like a top 5 team in the country against Miami, Gonzaga, and Houston. Then the last 3 it’s like all of our issues have risen to the surface and been very costly.

 

[TideFever]

Oats basically has two weeks to sort out getting this team to win more conference games than they lose. Tenn next Wed and another week off until going to Gainesville on the 5th. January will be brutal if we can't figure out defense and rebounding at least well enough to get out and run a bit when we can't hit shots. While his messaging is negative I'd like to believe he's giving some players a chance to hear what he's saying and get the rest in line.

Saban hasn't been above calling his team out when he wants guys to step up. He just usually reads the team and goes with the psychology of build them up when they're down and bust them up when they're sulking and acting entitled or like they don't give a rip. IMO he would have torn them a new one to the media after the defensive lapses we had against Davidson. That minute or so stretch that ended with back to back run outs where we didn't get back were as bad as I've seen from a Bama team in a while. Supposedly when he called timeout after that the "conversation" on the bench was a next level ass chewing session.

 

[tydzbk]

I was unable to watch the Davidson game live as I took my family on a little getaway to Huntsville for the night. I followed the score periodically and went back and watched it, and man Alabama’s defense is struggling to say the least.

Alabama typically wears teams down with their pace of play and that affects the other team on offense and Alabama can play off of that defensively. Pair that with losing Herb Jones ( SEC POY and SEC DPOY) and they’re hurting. Herb Jones covered up problems defensively more than what we realized. Now that Alabama doesn’t have that guy who will shut down a teams best player then it forces everyone to lock down and they just don’t have anyone doing that. When Alabama locks in, they can be a great defensive team but what Oats said is true that they’re not doing that.

Offensively the book is out on how to stop Alabama and that’s to slow them down and force them to play half court. If you remember, last year in the non conference Alabama was slow offensively and then started running sets come conference play and took off. Will that happen again? I think Oats will have plans ready to attack offensively. You don’t want to show everything in non conference. Houston and Gonzaga had an awful plan of trying to run with Alabama when nobody in the country can do that and expect to win. It took two of the best coaches in college basketball and future HoFers to figure that out.

Now all of it doesn’t fall on the players. Oats has shown that he is not a great in game adjuster, but I can see signs of him getting better. It’s a faster game in the SEC so HES had to adjust more. I have no doubt he will get it turned around.

It’s amazing how the losses makes us forget the wins right? People don’t even remember beating Gonzaga on the road (basically) and beating an elite Houston team. With great success comes great expectations, and I wouldn’t trade high expectations for low for anything. It’s a different era of Bama basketball now. Time for SEC play!

Huntsville rocks.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

Oats basically has two weeks to sort out getting this team to win more conference games than they lose. Tenn next Wed and another week off until going to Gainesville on the 5th. January will be brutal if we can't figure out defense and rebounding at least well enough to get out and run a bit when we can't hit shots. While his messaging is negative I'd like to believe he's giving some players a chance to hear what he's saying and get the rest in line.

Saban hasn't been above calling his team out when he wants guys to step up. He just usually reads the team and goes with the psychology of build them up when they're down and bust them up when they're sulking and acting entitled or like they don't give a rip. IMO he would have torn them a new one to the media after the defensive lapses we had against Davidson. That minute or so stretch that ended with back to back run outs where we didn't get back were as bad as I've seen from a Bama team in a while. Supposedly when he called timeout after that the "conversation" on the bench was a next level ass chewing session.

Coach Oats is not Coach Saban. Two different people and we shouldn't expect them to be the same.

 

[BamaNavyCPO]

I was unable to watch the Davidson game live as I took my family on a little getaway to Huntsville for the night. I followed the score periodically and went back and watched it, and man Alabama’s defense is struggling to say the least.

Alabama typically wears teams down with their pace of play and that affects the other team on offense and Alabama can play off of that defensively. Pair that with losing Herb Jones ( SEC POY and SEC DPOY) and they’re hurting. Herb Jones covered up problems defensively more than what we realized. Now that Alabama doesn’t have that guy who will shut down a teams best player then it forces everyone to lock down and they just don’t have anyone doing that. When Alabama locks in, they can be a great defensive team but what Oats said is true that they’re not doing that.

Offensively the book is out on how to stop Alabama and that’s to slow them down and force them to play half court. If you remember, last year in the non conference Alabama was slow offensively and then started running sets come conference play and took off. Will that happen again? I think Oats will have plans ready to attack offensively. You don’t want to show everything in non conference. Houston and Gonzaga had an awful plan of trying to run with Alabama when nobody in the country can do that and expect to win. It took two of the best coaches in college basketball and future HoFers to figure that out.

Now all of it doesn’t fall on the players. Oats has shown that he is not a great in game adjuster, but I can see signs of him getting better. It’s a faster game in the SEC so HES had to adjust more. I have no doubt he will get it turned around.

It’s amazing how the losses makes us forget the wins right? People don’t even remember beating Gonzaga on the road (basically) and beating an elite Houston team. With great success comes great expectations, and I wouldn’t trade high expectations for low for anything. It’s a different era of Bama basketball now. Time for SEC play!

A couple of other things I noticed:
1. Oats does not use his TOs judicially to stop/pause the opponent's momentum. Davidson's coach used his TOs anytime it looked like Bama was getting hot and ready to go on a run.
2. Oats waited until about 120 seconds left in the game to utilize the trap defense. It worked great and created turnovers, but it was too little too late. Too bad T.R. Dunn is not on staff.

 

[HOUNDZTOOTH1]

Lots to learn from the Davidson loss for this Bama Team if the team just looks at how they lost. The Davidson team a team with bunch of skinny semi slow players that PLAYED together, PLAYED defense, Chose the PACE and took CARE of the BALL, PLAYED solid sound BASKETBALL.. And most important, HAD and PLAYED with LEADERSHIP. Oats and Bama players should take notice.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

It's amazing how many people are conditioned to "Vitalisms" of you better get a "TO Baby" when things start to go south! There is absolutely no need to call a timeout if you are just going to say....1. Hey! Get some rebounds, 2. Play Defense or even call the press. Even at MS level you already have those things set at the beginning of the season and you can call them on the court. When you come into a game already shoul have a Press Break, Press on D, and out of bounds plays that you can call on the court with burning a TO.

When you run an offense like the "System", "Dribble and Drive", "Dribble and Space" or whatever it's about players responding to situations of a three-on-three game. If you are losing it's because they don't know how to handle those situations, or they aren't executing.

The only reason you need to call a timeout is: 1. rest, 2. A quick hitter from under the basket, or sideline out of Bounds play, or 3. Stop the momentum. However, if you call a timeout then the other team gets the TO also to rest. Some coaches have different philosophy on number 3. A control freak would probably call a timeout and on the opposite spectrum there are coaches that like their players to figure it out and work through the run.

Timeouts are not the reason we are losing. Lack of execution on rebounding and playing defense is why we are losing. I should be able to call "55" from the sideline and my players respond by playing full court M2M press.

 

[TideFever]

It's amazing how many people are conditioned to "Vitalisms" of you better get a "TO Baby" when things start to go south! There is absolutely no need to call a timeout if you are just going to say....1. Hey! Get some rebounds, 2. Play Defense or even call the press. Even at MS level you already have those things set at the beginning of the season and you can call them on the court. When you come into a game already shoul have a Press Break, Press on D, and out of bounds plays that you can call on the court with burning a TO.

When you run an offense like the "System", "Dribble and Drive", "Dribble and Space" or whatever it's about players responding to situations of a three-on-three game. If you are losing it's because they don't know how to handle those situations, or they aren't executing.

The only reason you need to call a timeout is: 1. rest, 2. A quick hitter from under the basket, or sideline out of Bounds play, or 3. Stop the momentum. However, if you call a timeout then the other team gets the TO also to rest. Some coaches have different philosophy on number 3. A control freak would probably call a timeout and on the opposite spectrum there are coaches that like their players to figure it out and work through the run.

Timeouts are not the reason we are losing. Lack of execution on rebounding and playing defense is why we are losing. I should be able to call "55" from the sideline and my players respond by playing full court M2M press.

IMO, if the other team is on fire and we're out of sorts or there's a matchup that's just not working for us then call the timeout before the bleeding turns into a wound we can't recover from. Don't wait for a regular timeout and ffs don't keep a pile of TOs in your pocket and then never use them at the end of the game.

There are plenty of legit reasons to call a TO, but to me if the team is getting blitzed then at least get them off the court a minute. Even if all that is done is distracting them from the game then at least let the players retrack their mind and get out of what is likely a panic moment. Maybe players talk to each other about something they couldn't as the game was moving. But ultimately, it's all about doing whatever it takes to break the other teams momentum and help our team collect themselves.

The Memphis second half had a stretch that was a great example of needing to use a TO. We didn't. They got so hot for a few minutes that they started hitting some truly wild 3 point shots and ran off 12+. By the next stoppage the game was all but decided. The last two really crazy 3s were more about us being so out of sorts we were practically frozen in place while they were blitzing us.

It drives me nuts to see Bama coaches watch us get torn a new one at some moment in that middle 12 minutes of the second half and never call a timeout because "the 'under 8' or 'under 4' is 45 seconds away". Well, maybe it could happen in 45 seconds but if there isn't a foul or something it might be a minute or more. By which time that timeout might not help much.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

IMO, if the other team is on fire and we're out of sorts or there's a matchup that's just not working for us then call the timeout before the bleeding turns into a wound we can't recover from. Don't wait for a regular timeout and ffs don't keep a pile of TOs in your pocket and then never use them at the end of the game.

There are plenty of legit reasons to call a TO, but to me if the team is getting blitzed then at least get them off the court a minute. Even if all that is done is distracting them from the game then at least let the players retrack their mind and get out of what is likely a panic moment. Maybe players talk to each other about something they couldn't as the game was moving. But ultimately, it's all about doing whatever it takes to break the other teams momentum and help our team collect themselves.

The Memphis second half had a stretch that was a great example of needing to use a TO. We didn't. They got so hot for a few minutes that they started hitting some truly wild 3 point shots and ran off 12+. By the next stoppage the game was all but decided. The last two really crazy 3s were more about us being so out of sorts we were practically frozen in place while they were blitzing us.

It drives me nuts to see Bama coaches watch us get torn a new one at some moment in that middle 12 minutes of the second half and never call a timeout because "the 'under 8' or 'under 4' is 45 seconds away". Well, maybe it could happen in 45 seconds but if there isn't a foul or something it might be a minute or more. By which time that timeout might not help much.

If we would play defense and rebound, we wouldn't have any problems. Like I said, it's a philosophy move and maybe we just aren't mature enough to figure it out yet and he needs to guide a bit more in the game.

 

[anon_z8qxv7qt5719f]

With it being basketball, I don't think either of the losses merit being alarmed about in the sense of the "sky is falling". It's a time for growing. I will start being alarmed if we don't grow and struggle in conference play.

 

[BamaNavyCPO]

Lots to learn from the Davidson loss for this Bama Team if the team just looks at how they lost. The Davidson team a team with bunch of skinny semi slow players that PLAYED together, PLAYED defense, Chose the PACE and took CARE of the BALL, PLAYED solid sound BASKETBALL.. And most important, HAD and PLAYED with LEADERSHIP. Oats and Bama players should take notice.

Totally agree! For me, Davidson's play was nostalgic.

 

[gittarman]

At the beginning of the season I looked at Bama opponents going into the SEC season & figured a reshuffled lineup would likely lose at least three games. The only loss I projected that was accurate was Memphis at Memphis (pre-season top 15). Davidson wasn't even on the schedule. So the lone shocker was Iona. In retrospect, losing to future HOF Coach Pettino is not a bad loss. I had us losing to Gonzaga, Houston and Memphis. This opening 12 game schedule was every bit as deep and challenging as the upcoming SEC schedule looms; especially when factoring the incredible upset of Gonzaga at Gonzga. Who got that right? Its my opinion that the grueling schedule created some fatigue that showed in the last three games. This team has the horses,the talent and the "want to" that is two deep literally. I wouldn't sell them short for another run at the SEC title & beyond...beginning this week.