Full-Court Press: Takeaways from Alabama Basketball vs Gonzaga

Blake Byler's thoughts and takeaways from Alabama basketball's loss in Birmingham.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — After picking up two massive wins in the past two games over Houston and Memphis, the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide fell to Gonzaga in the C.M. Newton Classic by a final score of 100-90.

It was a game of highs and lows for the Alabama, so here are a few things that stuck out the most to me:

1. Brandon Miller has arrived as one of the country's best players.

What more can you say?

Alabama's freshman phenom was absolutely incredible despite the loss. Brandon Miller scored 36 points — a career high — on an efficient 12-for-22 shooting from the floor, including six made 3-pointers.

He carried Alabama on his back in the second half, scoring 26 of the Crimson Tide's 48 in the period, and willed his way to keeping Alabama in the game when Gonzaga was clicking on all cylinders offensively.

Knowing the Miller can have games of this nature solidifies him as one of the nation's elite, but Alabama needed more from the rest of the team. Mark Sears, the Crimson Tide's second leading scorer on the season, scored just five points on 1-for-8 shooting despite getting plenty of quality looks.

If Alabama runs into an offense as elite as Gonzaga again, it'll need more from its scorers besides Miller to come away with a victory.

2. Gonzaga was excellent offensively, a result of Alabama's struggling defense.

So far this season Alabama's defense had been one of the better units in the country, garnering a top-20 defensive efficiency rating according to the analytics service KenPom. 

That didn't show on Saturday.

Besides the fact that Gonzaga broke the triple-digit threshold in scoring, Alabama was unable to come up with stops even when it found a scoring rhythm in the second half. 

The Bulldogs ran a lot of pick-and-roll sets with All-American center Drew Timme at the top of the key, leading to floater after floater, and runner after runner. To Gonzaga's credit, it hit just about everything it took from 8-12 feet from the basket. 

Timme scored 29 points as well, schooling Alabama in the post with his next-level footwork and positioning.

Oats said after the game that Alabama has a lot to work on defensively, and the schedule lets up in terms of elite offensive teams for the next few games. Alabama has three games in a row against teams outside of KenPom's top-50 offenses — plenty of chances for the Crimson Tide to grow on that side of the ball.

All in all, it was an incredibly well-executed offensive gameplan from one of the nation's best offensive teams.

3. The turnover problem has to improve.

This has been a recurring theme all season, but it finally caught up with Alabama when the defense faltered.

The Crimson Tide ranks in the bottom-50 in all of college basketball in terms of turnovers, but Alabama had been able to overcome that in recent games, including having just three second half turnovers against Houston. 

This time, Alabama's 21 turnovers were more than detrimental, with every turnover killing momentum that the Crimson Tide kept trying to build to get back into the game.

Alabama has shown it has the capability to cut its turnovers down — as shown by the aforementioned second half against Houston — but moving forward the Crimson Tide can reach a new level if it makes that turnover rate more consistent.

4. Jaden Bradley matures more and more every game.

We're watching the emergence of Jaden Bradley in real time. 

Last game, he was slotted into the starting lineup after the wrist injury that has Nimari Burnett sidelined for six to eight weeks.

Saturday he looked like a star for much of the game — and one who seems much older than a freshman.

He has proved to be one of the better finishers on the team around the rim, and has also developed the reputation of a great defender that even Gonzaga head coach Mark Few spoke about after the game. 

Bradley scored 18 points in the game — 12 of which came in the first half — and Alabama's offense flowed significantly better with him in the game compared to his guard counterparts. Bradley's potential is sky-high, and we are only going to see him continue to improve as the season goes on and he gets more collegiate experience under his belt.

5. Despite the loss, Alabama is still in a great spot.

No loss is a "good" loss, and obviously winning is always the preferred result if you're Alabama, but in a way this game was house money.

Coming into the season, if you told Alabama fans that the team would hold a 9-2 record with wins over two No. 1-ranked teams, and would go 2-1 in a stretch that featured Houston, Memphis and Gonzaga, I think they would have been pretty happy.

Alabama has proven that it has the team to compete with the nation's elite and a loss to Gonzaga doesn't change that. This is not a loss for Alabama to be ashamed of, but one to learn and grow from as a grueling SEC schedule awaits. 

6. A few more things...

• The shooting from the free throw line was much improved. 20-for-24 is significantly better than the Houston and Memphis games which both saw Alabama shoot under 80 percent as a team.  

• Alabama continues to struggle in Birmingham. The Crimson Tide lost to Davidson in the C.M. Newton Classic a year ago, and haven't won in Legacy Arena since playing Samford in December of 2019. On top of that, Alabama lost games to Clemson, Texas and Oregon back when this game was known as the Vulcan Classic. 

• Rylan Griffen looked great in limited minutes, scoring eight points on 3-of-5 shooting. 

See also:

Alabama Falls to Gonzaga in C.M. Newton Classic, 100-90

Alabama Basketball Leaves Legacy Arena with Another Loss

BamaCentral Courtside: No. 15 Gonzaga 100, No. 4 Alabama 90

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