Chris Youngblood Illustrates Current Culture of Alabama Basketball

The transfer guard details the ins and outs of Crimson Tide hoops, stating that every practice is "like Game 7 of the NBA Finals."

Alabama guard Chris Youngblood / Obtained from Alabama Basketball's X/Twitter

In just a couple of years, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats and his staff have built an empire that is turning Alabama into a basketball school, especially after reaching the first Final Four in program history last season.

This new culture has brought in a very talented class of transfers and freshman recruits, including former Kennesaw State and South Florida guard Chris Youngblood. On Thursday's SEC Basketball Experience Podcast, Youngblood, who is from Tuscaloosa, detailed what it's like competing against some of the best players in the country on a daily basis.

"Every day at practice, since I've stepped on campus, it's been like Game 7 of the NBA Finals," Youngblood said. "Whether it's a workout or practice, we compete in everything and keep score and keep track of everything. That's been fun because I'm a big-time competitor, so competing against the best is kind of hard, it gets so repetitive, but you're competing. Everybody is talking smack to each other, coach Oats is getting into it [assistant] Preston [Murphy] is on the sideline instigating, [assistant Ryan] Pannone is screaming. If you come to one of our practices, it's fun."

Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. was one of the team's top shooters from behind the arc last season, as he finished with an extremely efficient 44.7 percent from that area. Youngblood singled Wrightsell out by stating he is a "dog" and that he's shown a ton of improvement over the past couple of weeks ahead of the upcoming season.

Since Oats arrived in Tuscaloosa, he's built an offense that lives from the three-point line. Alabama finished last season averaging the most points per game (90.1) in all of college basketball, and this was largely due to the shooting clip from downtown. Youngblood explained what it's been like surrounded by athletes who dominate at this play-style.

"It's just different and something I got to get used to," Youngblood said. "When you pass to somebody who can make a shot at a very high and efficient rate whether it's wide open or contested, it makes you look better. I'm not the best passer, but I could make some decent reads and it makes me look 10-times better because they make the shot. It might be the wrong read and when it goes in I look like Rajon Rondo."

Nevertheless, while Alabama basketball was on top of the mountain offensively, the Crimson Tide's 81.2 points allowed per game were the sixth-most by any school in the nation. Aiming to fix this, Oats and his staff hired Brian Adams in July to be the team's main defensive assistant. The long-time NBA assistant helped develop six top-5 defenses throughout his time in the league, including the No. 1 defense in 2008 with the NBA champion Boston Celtics.

Youngblood emphasized that the Crimson Tide is treating defense as a mentality by everyone having each other's back and not being the one who messes up.

“Our new defensive coach, Brian Adams, he’s been big-time in just emphasizing defense," Youngblood said. "We’re going to shoot the ball real good and make a lot of shots, but defense is where we’re gonna win championships.”