How Alabama Basketball is Addressing its 3-Point Shooting Woes
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Over the past four games for No. 4 Alabama basketball, the Crimson Tide's poor shooting from 3-point territory has become one of the biggest focuses of both fans and critics alike.
While Alabama still managed a 3-1 record over those three games, poor shooting from deep kept the games closer that the Crimson Tide would have liked to have seen. Between the three wins — including two games that were forced to go into overtime — Alabama defeated its opponents by a combined 10 points.
That's a little too close for comfort, especially for head coach Nate Oats.
"We obviously haven't shot the ball well," Oats said. "As a staff over the last week — really before we got to Monday — we looked at every single one of our shooters, every 3-point attempt they've taken on the year and we analyzed, like, every one. What are they doing on makes vs misses? There's not any fundamental flaws necessarily that we have to go in and fix on a shot — you really only do that in the offseason — but there are certain things with different ones."
Alabama's poor shooting performances came to a head at Texas A&M last weekend. In the 67-61 loss, the Crimson Tide shot just 19 percent from deep (7-for-36). When added to Alabama's results from its three previous games, the Crimson Tide made just 22-of-116 attempts from beyond the arc, or 22 percent.
Due to the issues remaining consistent, Oats and his staff got together and reviewed the shots of all of his shooters. After analysis, there wasn't a consistent issue for all of them. However, there was some cleaning up to do.
"Some guys were leaning out of their shot on their misses and they're doing it a lot more lately," Oats said. "Some guys weren't getting as much lift — part of that may be their legs were getting a little tired, it's getting later so let's get their legs back under them. [...] We showed all the guys kinda different stuff, tried to work with them on just making sure that we're doing this every time — and you can't make any major changes at this point of the year in March. And none need to be made, but some little details were addressed.
"Hopefully you'll see some results this weekend because it certainly helps when we make shots at a little higher level."
While the poor shooting will certainly remain concerning should the struggles continue, Oats and Alabama have an opportunity to correct the issues this week. Due to the Crimson Tide being a 1-seed in this week's SEC Tournament, the team won't have to play its first game until Friday — a total of six days after its loss at Texas A&M.
While the team had Sunday to rest, it hit the hardwood again on Monday and has practiced every day since. Alabama won't know who its opponent will be until tomorrow — the second-round winner between 8-seed Florida and 9-seed Mississippi State — but regardless of who that opponent is, the regular-season SEC champions are remained focused on the task at hand.
"We've got a big week ahead of us," Oats said. "Excited to be headed to Nashville for the SEC Tournament. Last time it was in Nashville, we won it. We had a few goals this season. The first was to win the regular season [and] we accomplished that. The next one is to win the tournament, so the guys are focused on that.
"We've always bounced back after a loss pretty well this year — expect nothing different this time."
See Also:
Brandon Miller: "I Never Lose Sight That a Family Lost One of Their Loved Ones"
Three Games in Three Days: No. 1 Alabama's Path to its Eighth SEC Tournament Title
Alabama Basketball: Key Focuses Heading into the SEC Tournament
