Takeaways from Alabama Basketball's Win Over EKU

Blake Byler's thoughts and takeaways from the Crimson Tide's dominating victory.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After playing three consecutive top-10 teams in hostile environments, Alabama basketball needed a get-right game. It got just that on Saturday afternoon, with a 111-67 win over Eastern Kentucky in Coleman Coliseum to snap the 3-game skid. 

Here are a few of my thoughts and takeaways from the game:

1. Alabama's offense flowed beautifully.

In the last two games against Creighton and Arizona, Alabama struggled more shooting the ball than it had all season. This time out, the threes were falling early and often. 

Alabama opened the game 5-for-6 from beyond the arc, and never looked back. For the game, the Crimson Tide knocked down 19 of its 38 attempts from deep.

The ball whipped around the perimeter all night, and every player was unselfish, passing up their own shots to get better ones. Just look at the assist numbers: seven for Estrada, five each for Sears and Nelson, three each for Griffen and Walters. The 29 total assists were a season-high for the team. 

Griffen posted a career-high 19 points, finding his sweet spot in the corner. 

 "I passed up [a corner three] against Arizona, and coach told me to never pass one up again," Griffen said after the game.

Alabama found good shot after good shot the entire game. The team shot 38 attempts from downtown, but they weren't shooting them just for the sake of hoisting shots up, which it felt like at times against Arizona. Alabama worked the ball towards the rim, forced the defense to collapse, and found open looks working inside-out. 

Obviously it was against an inferior opponent, as Eastern Kentucky is nowhere near an SEC team, but scoring 111 points in a game and the offense flowing as well as it did is always a positive to build off of. 

2. Nelson has a much-needed efficient night. 

One of the storylines of Alabama's 3-game losing streak was the subpar play of Grant Nelson. His offense had been wildly inefficient, and that came to a head against Arizona when his 17 points came on 5-for-19 shooting from the floor and 3-for-15 shooting from 3-point range. 

Against Eastern Kentucky, Nelson's efficiency skyrocketed. He scored 19 points, and did so on just nine shots, making seven of them. He also made two of his three attempts from deep.

Instead of settling for the first outside look he got, which he did continually against Arizona, he attacked the rim and used his size to his advantage. His threes came off "one-more" passes with plenty of open space, and he drew plenty of attention at the rim allowing for open kickouts.

It's no secret that the frontcourt has been a major issue for Alabama this season, and as SEC play rapidly approaches, the Crimson Tide needs Nelson to replicate efficient performances that are vital to its offensive success.

3. The second half started terribly, but Alabama shook it off.

Alabama held a massive halftime lead in this game, but the second half started about as worse as you could imagine. 

From the opening possession until the first media timeout of the second half, Alabama went scoreless. During that time, Eastern Kentucky went on a 13-0 run and cut the deficit from 29 to 16.

It felt like a movie we've seen many times before, including multiple times this season. In almost every one of Alabama's losses so far this year, it has inexplicably given up a massive run in the second half to give away the lead, and hasn't been able to regain its momentum in any of them. 

Luckily in this game, Alabama had a bug enough cushion to not entirely give the lead away from one run, but importantly, the Crimson Tide found it in themselves to weather the storm and get back on track to finish the game.

Again, Eastern Kentucky is clearly an inferior opponent, but considering how much of an issue second-half runs have been for Alabama this season, it goes a long way for the starters to come back in after a benching and dominate the game the rest of the way. 

Playing a full 40 minutes has been a point of emphasis for Oats all week, and understandably so considering Alabama has played like a elite team for large chunks of games, but never for the whole thing. 

While it was 36 minutes of elite basketball instead of 40, Oats said he will take it compared to the 28 he'd been getting in other games. 

Alabama finds 3-point stroke in blowout win against Eastern Kentucky