Alabama Basketball Looks to Bounce Back at South Carolina

The Crimson Tide is 1-2 over its last three games and is in desperate need of a victory if it wants to remain a highly-seeded NCAA Tournament team in March

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball and South Carolina share a common goal heading into Tuesday night’s game inside Colonial Life Arena.

Right about now, both teams could use a moral victory.

Both the Crimson Tide and the Gamecocks have gone 1-2 over their last three games, each coming off of a loss from this past Saturday.

For Alabama, the loss came at the hands of Missouri, who was up by 20 points with just over five minutes to go in the game. The Crimson Tide came roaring back with a 22-2 run to pull within one point, but the Tigers ultimately prevailed with a 68-65 win.

For Alabama head coach Nate Oats, the first five minutes of that game was just as important to look over with the team as was the final five minutes.

“In video I usually do a full cleanup,” Oats said. “Pretty much what we did was show them the first five minutes of that game. If you look at the first five minutes up until the first media timeout of that Missouri game, then you look at that five-minute stretch where we took a 20-point lead and cut it to one from six minutes to go to just over a minute to go — you shave 19 points off a lead over less than five minutes — the sense of urgency in that five minutes was drastically different than the sense of urgency in the first five minutes of the game.

“Not that we’re going to be flying all over trapping and doing stuff like that in the first five minutes but we got to play a little harder. That’s been our point. We got to start games better.”

South Carolina is going through the same emotions. On Saturday afternoon, the Gamecocks were trounced at the hands of Mississippi State, 75-59. While South Carolina under coach Frank Martin is usually a solid rebounding team, the Bulldogs dominated the glass by a 46-31 margin, sending South Carolina home with a loss from their own arena.

“It’s disappointing we can’t put two games in a row together,” Martin said following Saturday’s game. “It’s a rollercoaster right now.”

South Carolina’s SEC record might be 3-5 compared to Alabama’s 10-1, but at first glance the multiple pauses that the program has had to take due to COVID-19 are not reflected. The Gamecocks had to stop play for almost a month spanning from Dec. 5 until Jan. 2 before having to take another 10-day pause at the start of conference play. While its record might not indicate some of the success that it’s had, South Carolina has been able to take down tough opponents like Florida and Texas A&M.

Oats is well aware of not only the toughness that the Gamecocks exhibit despite their record but also the toughness that will be required of his own team come Tuesday night.

“This South Carolina game is going to test our toughness,” Oats said. “Coach Martin is obviously one of the best coaches in the country at getting these guys to play hard, play tough, be physical. They’re one of the better offensive rebounding teams every single year in the country — they’re top-10 again in the country. They’re playing fast so our transition D, our rebounding is going to get tested — if you’re not tough, they’re going to run you off the floor.

“I know their record’s not that great in the SEC — I think they’re 3-5 right now — but they’ve had more COVID pauses that anybody in the league so it’s hard to get rhythm going. They’ve been practicing now for a few weeks, they haven’t been paused for a while, they’re probably playing their best basketball because they’ve been able to practice for a few weeks in a row.”

With both teams coming off of tough losses, both will be fighting to regain some sense of dignity after a bad stretch.

Alabama senior wing Herb Jones continues to struggle with a nagging back injury that has kept him absent from contact in practices. While Jones’ playing time hasn’t been too limited, the injury has continued to create problems for Jones, who can frequently be spotted wearing a massaging back brace on the side of the court.

Jones will remain a game-time decision but is likely to play on Tuesday night. With him in the lineup, the Crimson Tide will have a better opportunity of achieving its key to the game: limit the Gamecocks in the rebounding game. If Alabama can pull that off, then it should emerge from the arena on Tuesday night with a win.

If Alabama is able to defeat South Carolina, it could be the start of righting a ship that has been off course over the last couple of weeks. That being said, it isn’t going to be easy.

“I think they’re dangerous,” Oats said on Monday afternoon. “I think they got really good players, I think they get them to play really hard and they play fast and we’ve got our hands full tomorrow.”

Alabama and South Carolina are slated for a 5:30 p.m. CT tip and will be broadcast on SEC Network.