Veteran Physicality Becomes Alabama Basketball's Ultimate Undoing

The one affliction that has plagued the Crimson Tide all season long delivered the final blow to Alabama's historic 2023 season.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Superman has Kryptonite. Greek mythology's Achilles, his heel. Now Alabama, college basketball's top team entering the NCAA Tournament, has had its greatest weakness exploited, leading to its consequent end.

When college basketball fans and analysts alike saw San Diego State across from Alabama when the Sweet 16 matchups were settled, everyone knew why this Aztecs team had a chance to pull of the upset: it's full of veterans that play tough, physical defense.

The Crimson Tide lost six total games this season, and just about every loss had one common thread: the victorious teams were experienced, physical and strong.

Even dating back to Alabama's first loss of the season in the Phil Knight Invitational back in late November, it became apparent that an older team that could take advantage of Alabama's youth had the ability to give it tremendous issues.

While head coach Nate Oats' point before the game on Thursday that Alabama is 'young' but not 'immature' is true, it doesn't change the fact that four of the Crimson Tide's major contributors have been freshmen. Kids. Most of whom couldn't even vote in the 2020 presidential election. 

San Diego State? The exact opposite. Of the nine players the Aztecs played in their 71-64 win over Alabama, seven of them were seniors. The other two? Juniors.

These weren't kids, they were grown men. And they played like it, too. The physical defense and strength of San Diego State helped garner it a ranking of fourth nationally in KenPom's defensive efficiency stat. 

"They were very physical with us, they switch one through five. More experienced than us," guard Jahvon Quinerly said. "That's a good team over there. [...] You could make the case that it bothered us a little bit, but we didn't execute the offensive gameplan well enough."

Alabama's 64 points was well below its season average of roughly 82, and it made just 23 of its 71 shots from the floor for a rocky 32 percent clip. Even more striking, Alabama made just 11 percent of its shot from beyond the arc, three makes in 27 attempts.

"They were flying around," guard Nimari Burnett said. "Being connected, rotating really well. [...] Running us off the line, but also keeping us in front."

"They kind of got us off our drives. [...] They had eight blocks on the game," Oats said. "We needed to do a little bit better job being able to make better rim decisions. They're tough, physical, big, strong experienced team, and especially in the first half we didn't come out prepared. It's somewhat on us, and somewhat the players have to get comfortable with the way they played."

On the floor itself, Alabama got knocked around. Bodies hit the deck, arms flailed, heads banged. The referees did the best they could to contain the physicality of the game, but that didn't stop Alabama's younger players from frantically imploring the officials for calls after inside shots were swatted and rebounds were grabbed.

"Going into the game we knew they were going to be really physical," Burnett said. "It was more so the energy and effort they were playing with, the intensity. The kind of comradery, if someone got beat, they had another guy stepping up right there."

San Diego State forced 14 Alabama turnovers, and while that isn't as high a number as the Crimson Tide has had in previous games, nine of those turnovers came off steals. Those live-ball turnovers from Aztec defenders really digging into Alabama's guards led to multiple uncontested transition buckets, which over time become difficult to overcome.

Conjoining with Alabama's poor shooting display, freshman star Brandon Miller had one of his worst games of the season. The Aztec defense held him to just nine points on an abysmal 3-for-19 shooting from the field. 

"I think we came in this game prepared as much as we can possibly," Miller said. "I think our shot-making could have been better. Our shot choices could have been better. But, I mean, San Diego is a good group of guys. They're vets, so they have a lot of experience. I feel like they came out and played hard."

There were times when Alabama basketball looked unstoppable over the course of this incredible season. There were also times where the Crimson Tide looked incredibly human, but used superhuman willpower to overcome unthinkable deficits. 

But ultimately, there was one style of basketball, one team composition, one way that it was going to fall in this NCAA Tournament.

It just so happened to run into it tonight.

See also:

No. 1 Alabama Basketball Falls to No. 5 SDSU, Eliminated from NCAA Tournament

The Run That Changed Momentum, Turning Alabama's Sweet 16 Sour

Everything Nate Oats, Alabama Basketball Said Following Sweet 16 Loss to SDSU