I can't believe this thread. Herb Jones is likely to be the MVP of the SEC this year, a Naismith Defensive Award Finalist, and an All American, in spite of his lack of scoring, and some people wonder why he is in the game? We are definitely a better team with Herb Jones in the lineup than with Herb Jones on the bench, which is the reason he should not be playing point. Defensively we cannot afford herb to pick up charging fouls driving to the basket.
Now the problem against Miss State should have been anticipated. Alabama is basically running a four guard offensive, with either Reese, Rojas or Bruner playing the big man, in an attempt to draw the other teams big from under the basket. Miss State has two decent bigs and any team with a good big is going to give Bama fits, just as Alabama is going to give any team with a traditional defense is going to have problems matching up with Alabama's four guard offense.
In December, I said that Alabama needed to have someone teach Alabama how to take the ball to the rim and teach them how to shoot a layup. The hard fact is that if you cannot hit 60% of your chip shots at the rim, you have a problem and I think we are below 50% of the year. We have overcome this problem by having a team that offensive rebounds and hits over 35% from three point range most of the year. Saturday and at Arkansas we out rebounded teams we should not be out rebounding. With Herb Jones in the game, Alabama is a ferocious rebounding team.
If we hit shots at the rim and shoot 40% from 3 territory we will beat any team we play. If the opposing team has a great big man and a strong power forward, we are going to have a problem. Miss State finally learned the secret of beating Alabama in the second half Saturday. We cannot go 2-14 in the second half from 3 and win many games. The secret to winning last Saturday was that Herbert Jones did not pick up any cheap fouls in the first half and managed to stay in the game. We can win even if Herb Jones does not score, because of the havoc that Herbert Jones creates defensively.
When Herbert Jones needs a breather, we have his clone, #14, to come in and give him a breather. The problem with the team the last three weeks has been that we are not getting our normal production from Primo and Petty to go with Jones. We also cannot win a game that Shakelford does not get 15 points or more.
All that being said, our best chance going forward is to lose early in the SEC tournament and get the needed rest before a Thursday of Friday NCAA game. That being said would I love to win the tournament? Yes, but we have nothing to prove that rest would not cure.