Alabama Basketball: Key Focuses Heading into the SEC Tournament

The Crimson Tide has its work cut out for it this week as it prepares for its Friday quarterfinal game in the SEC Tournament.

Joey Blackwell | Mar 6, 2023

Alabama Basketball: Key Focuses Heading into the SEC Tournament /

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Alabama Crimson Tide

Alabama basketball might not play until Friday of the SEC Tournament, but that doesn't mean the No. 2 Crimson Tide doesn't have a tough road ahead of it.

Alabama finished the regular season with a 26-5 overall record and a 16-2 record in the Southeastern Conference. With its season-sweeping overtime win over Auburn last Wednesday, the Crimson Tide clinched the SEC regular-season title and locked up the 1-seed in this week's conference tournament in Nashville, Tenn.

The road won't be easy for Alabama, though, as it still has to play — and win — three tough games if it wants to double up on its SEC titles like it did to end the 2020-21 season. The Crimson Tide will first have to take down the winner between 8-seed Florida and 9-seed Mississippi State, then have to face one of the following four teams in the tournament semifinals: 4-seed Missouri, 5-seed Tennessee, 12-seed South Carolina or 13-seed Ole Miss.

With Tennessee currently having the second-highest odds to win the tournament despite point guard Zakai Zeigler being out for the remainder of the season, that means that Alabama's road will get tougher before it gets easier. However, should the Crimson Tide make Sunday's tournament final, the likelihood that 2-seed Texas A&M or 3-seed Kentucky will be awaiting it is quite high.

Alabama might have its work cut out for it, but there's a reason that the Crimson Tide is still the tournament favorite. Alabama has plenty of positive areas that it must remain consistent in as well as areas that it must improve on if it doesn't want to make its trip to Nashville a short one.

As Alabama begins its preparation for the tournament on Monday, let's take a look at what the Crimson Tide has going for it — as well as what it needs to work on:

Key Positives Heading into Nashville for Alabama

Depth

Depth has been one of the biggest positives for Alabama basketball, and its final stretch proved just how valuable its depth can be.

In games where key contributors like Brandon Miller had an off night in terms of shooting, the Crimson Tide's depth was able to pull them out of troublesome situations. Players like Jahvon Quinerly, who has only continued to improve over the final stretch. Nimari Burnett has also been stellar off the bench after losing the starting role to Jaden Bradley earlier in the season following an injury.

Those players are just two of a solid group. Alabama truly has at least 11 players that can make an impact when they step onto the floor, and that can only improve its chances of raising the trophy inside Bridgestone Arena.

Defense

During Alabama's run to the Sweet 16 back during the 2020-21 season, the Crimson Tide's defensive efficiency was ranked No. 3 in the country, according to KenPom. This season, Alabama is in the exact same spot heading into the SEC Tournament.

Noah Clowney is fourth in the conference in rebounds, averaging 8.2 per game. Charles Bediako is fifth in blocks, averaging 1.6 per contest. While Alabama is known for its efforts on the offensive end of the floor, its defense is the primary reason why the Crimson Tide is in the position it's in right now.

Given how much Alabama's offense has struggled down the stretch (we'll get to that in a second), its defense is what it's going to have to rely on should the shots continue to not fall. The Crimson Tide's defense is ranked No. 1 nationally in 2-point percentage and No. 3 in 3-point percentage per KenPom — something that should bring some comfort to Alabama fans heading into the tournament.

Brandon Miller

Is there really anything else that needs to be said?

Miller has been a crucial piece for Alabama this season on both ends of the floor. Even with the off-the-court distractions that have taken place over the past few weeks, nothing seems to have slowed his production down.

Miller currently leads the SEC in points per game with 19.6 while also placing fifth in the conference in rebounds per game at 8.0. While there are multiple players that fans can point to as key contributors to Alabama's success this season, there's no doubt that Miller is the crucial piece of that puzzle.

Areas that Need Improvement from the Crimson Tide

3-Point Shooting

As mentioned earlier, Alabama has proven that it can win even when the shots aren't falling at a high clip. However, the Crimson Tide certainly hasn't made things easy on itself when it struggles from deep.

Alabama proved over the course of the season that it is one of the most dangerous teams in the country when it is consistently hitting shots from beyond the arc. However, the Crimson Tide struggled down the stretch and while it was able to salvage wins at South Carolina and against Arkansas and Auburn, poor shooting was a large reason behind the team's loss at Texas A&M.

Over its past four games, Alabama is 25-of-116 from deep (22 percent). That's not just bad. That's abysmal. If the Crimson Tide isn't able to correct things quickly, then this team's season might be ending earlier than many expect.

Sluggish Starts

Over its past three games, Alabama has trailed by double-digits at some point in the first half. That is something that the Crimson Tide simply can't afford to continue to let happening if it wants to stick around through March.

In many ways, the sluggish starts can be attributed to the areas of improvement listed both above and below this point. Poor shooting from deep and multiple early turnovers have been devastating, allowing teams to quickly jump out ahead. While the Crimson Tide was able to overtake and win over the Gamecocks and the Tigers, the same couldn't be said for its trip to face the Aggies in Bryan-College Station.

It's tournament time, and Alabama can't afford to start slow any longer. Every game for the rest of the season is a win-or-go-home situation, and should the slow starts continue, the Crimson Tide might be unknowingly opting for the return trip home.

Turnovers

It seems that no matter what Nate Oats has done, turnovers continue to be a problem for this Alabama team.

Make no mistake: there have been portions — even stretches — of the season where the Crimson Tide has shown improvement in the category. However, the last three games for Alabama tell a different story. Over the Crimson Tide's games against Arkansas and Auburn as well as at Texas A&M, it averaged 16 turnovers a game.

The situation is the same as the previous two areas of improvement: Alabama can't simply skirt around this issue, it must directly address it. Oats and the Crimson Tide have the time they need this week to make the necessary corrections, but the success — of failure — of those corrections simply won't be seen until Friday.