Clifford Omoruyi Will 'Have to Step Up' Against Creighton's Top Scorer
TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— No. 7 Alabama has had a ton of success in the scoring department to start the season as the Crimson Tide's 89.2 points per game is good for fifth in the country. However, despite making defensive-minded additions in both the players and staff, the defense is still struggling as Alabama's in the bottom 50 in points allowed per game (78.1).
One of the additions was Rutgers transfer center Clifford Omoruyi, whose 2.9 blocks per game in 2023-24 led the Big Ten and he made the Big Ten All-Defensive Team in each of the last two seasons. Nevertheless, head coach Nate Oats has been open about Omoruyi still adapting to the Tide's extremely fast-paced system, and its resulted in fouls and a small number of minutes.
But as we head into Alabama's 10th game of the young season against Creighton, Omoruyi will be matched up with Bluejays center Ryan Kalkbrenner, who is widely regarded as one of the best bigs in the country. For reference, Kalkbrenner was ranked as the No. 8 player in ESPN's annual preseason top 100. Through nine games, Kalkbrenner leads the Big East in rebounds (8.4) and blocks (2.6) per game and is No. 3 in the conference in scoring with 17.3 points per game.
"Ideally, Cliff plays great, like we planned on him playing on the post, and he does get a few more minutes," Oats said during Friday's press conference. "But if he's not able to guard him one-on-one, then we'll have to go to some other options, whether it be another matchup, whether it be doubles, whatever we end up having to try to do. But I think Cliff is going to have to step up to the challenge and play a little bit better."
Oats admitted that a big reason for the 87-78 loss to Purdue, who also has multiple sizeable threats in the paint, was due to the lack of practicing post defense. Omoruyi played 22 minutes that night, which is a bit more than his average.
"The fact that Cliff doesn't have to guard the post ever in practice makes it a little bit harder for him to be a great post defender, because he's not going against a great post player every day in practice," Oats said. "But I think he's more than capable of being good. When there's these dominant post players where they like to feed the post, then we probably need to play a few more minutes."
Alabama has a couple of forwards and bigs that can help Omoruyi out against Kalkbrenner on Saturday night and Oats listed them.
"Aiden Sherrell's got great size, he's strong, Aiden can get a shot," Oats said. "Other than that, I don't know if we trust anybody to actually play him one-on-one. I did think Grant [Nelson] did a solid job last year, when we were at their place and both of the other guys fouled out. But he's big. He's a tough cover and he's going to test our defense for sure."
Omoruyi and the Alabama frontcourt will face Kalkbrenner and Creighton on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 7:30 p.m. CT at home in Coleman Coliseum on SEC Network.