Takeaways from Alabama Basketball's Blowout Win Over South Carolina

Blake Byler's thoughts and takeaways from the Crimson Tide's dominant win in its SEC home opener.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball looked dominant on Tuesday night, blowing out South Carolina 74-47 to move to 2-0 in SEC play behind a massive 31-point performance from guard Mark Sears.

The win was a much-needed one for the Crimson Tide in a lot of ways. Let's talk about some things that stood out.

1. Alabama found its groove defensively.

Defense has been the Achilles' heel of this Alabama team throughout this season, but on Tuesday night, it found its footing.

The Crimson Tide looked as engaged as it has all year on the defensive end. South Carolina's 47 points were a season-low for a high-major team against Alabama, and the second-lowest any team has scored on the Crimson Tide this season.

Across the board, players were active and energetic. The intensity was at an all-time high, and it led to the sharpest defensive half of Alabama's season. 

In the second half, it took 6-and-a-half minutes for South Carolina to score its first points. The Gamecocks were held to under 0.6 points per possession in the second half.

Alabama players flew around on the defensive end, hustling on the help side, maintaining high levels of energy, and forced South Carolina into a whole lot of bad looks that led to easy rebounds and fast breaks.

Oats has been saying that if this team gets the defense figure out, it's going to be really dangerous. We saw the first step of how that may look tonight, and it looked like a 27-point win in league play. 

Now, we have to find out if this was Alabama turning a corner, or if this was a flash in the pan. If it was the former, this team is going to win a lot more basketball games.

2. The foot stayed on the gas. 

In addition to the defense, another one of Alabama's biggest problems this season has been its inability to maintain leads, especially late in games. 

On Tuesday, that was no issue at all. Not only did Alabama build a lead, but it continued to grow that lead and push the game further out of reach as the clock rolled to triple zeroes.

"I think our effort stayed great, we kept playing for each other, the ball kept moving," Oats said. "When you play unselfish, you take care of the ball, you play defense like that, I think we're one of the best teams in the country."

I couldn't sum it up any better myself. 

Every issue that the Crimson Tide has been plagued by this season was relatively fixed in some form or fashion against South Carolina. As the foot stayed on the gas in the second half (Alabama won the second half 44-18), we got a glimpse of the potential of this team when they put it together for extended stretches. 

3. Pringle and Dioubate step up.

Before the game, it was reported that Mohamed Wague would be out with a foot injury, and we later learned his status is 'week-to-week.' That meant Nick Pringle would slide back into his starting role, and he made the most of it. 

Pringle scored just three points in the game, but he grabbed four rebounds and blocked two shots, taking home the hard hat for scoring the most blue-collar points in the game. 

Oats said it was one of Pringle's best games he's played in terms of impact he had on the team. But it wasn't just him that stepped up.

Freshman forward Mouhamed Dioubate got nine minutes of playing time, one of his highest totals on the season. In that time, he grabbed six rebounds, blocked a shot, and completely energized the Coleman Coliseum crowd as well as the Alabama bench. 

Every hustle play Dioubate made was met with applause, and after a timeout followed one of his hustle plays, his team mobbed him with cheers and smiles as he ran to the bench. 

"You can look to see [Mo Dioubate] get a few more minutes here and there," Oats said. "He's tough and we're lacking some toughness right now. We've got to get him in a little bit more."

After the game, Oats said that when he gave the hard hat to Pringle, he turned around and placed it on Dioubate's head, making him the honorary winner for the impact he had in his limited minutes.

pic.twitter.com/Dgt7gaGyYC https://t.co/0dQzvzQc8k

— Blake Byler (@blakebyler45) January 10, 2024

Alabama has been looking for some players to exhibit some toughness, and this is likely not the last we've seen of Dioubate and the impact he'll make as the season goes on.

Second Half Defense Sparks Alabama Basketball In Victory Over South Carolina