Three Takeaways From No. 2 Alabama's Daunting Loss to No. 13 Purdue

The Boilermakers offense took advantage of the Crimson Tide defense at all three shooting areas of the Mackey Arena hardwood.

Nov 15, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reacts to a call during the second half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

No. 2 Alabama men's basketball fell to No. 13 Purdue 87-78 on Friday night in West Lafayette, Ind. for its first loss of the young season.

The Boilermakers had the lead for a heavy majority of the evening and Alabama couldn’t maintain its couple of leads in the second half due to a massive run by Purdue.

There's so much to dissect from this matchup at Mackey Arena. Here are three takeaways:

Alabama Struggles Against Purdue's Ball Movement

Coming into this game, Alabama head coach Nate Oats emphasized the playmaking abilities of Purdue guard Braden Smith and the Boilermakers as a whole and this was certainly on display.

The Boilermakers tallied 87 points on Friday night, which was six points higher than Alabama's 81.2 points allowed per game last season––a bottom-10 number in college basketball. This was made possible by Purdue's ball movement to create high-percentage shots, as the Boilermakers shot an efficient 49 percent from the field and 56 percent from deep.

Additionally, Purdue scored on 62.5 percent of its possessions compared to Alabama's 52.3. Whether it was down low, from the midrange or from downtown, the Boilermakers took open shots fairly often. The aforementioned Braden Smith led the way in spreading the ball as he recorded 10 assists and had just one of Purdue's three total turnovers on the night, as Alabama simply could not take the ball away from them.

Purdue had the lead for nearly 30 of the game's 40 minutes while the Tide led for a little over five minutes. The ball movement took some time off the clock with each possession and may have tired out Alabama's defense as Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn finished with 26 points, Smith and guard Fletcher Loyer each logged 17 points and C.J. Cox's back-to-back-to-back threes in the second half sparked a run to eventually put the game away.

“They’ve got skilled guys. I mean, you look at some of the shots they had," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "I mean, Smith we knew was good. Like I said, he didn’t hit a three and he only got five at the free-throw line, but he had twos. He gets downhill. He gets some pull-ups on us. Loyer got downhill on a few and got fouled. We try to play the numbers, but they kind of defied them a little bit. They had I think on non-rim twos, like almost half their shots were non-rim twos and they shot 45 percent on them. We had them all but 27 on non-rim twos. We needed to do a better job pushing them down to the rim and get some shot-blocking.

“We need to be better on D. Our defense struggled a little bit last year. I think we’re definitely gonna be better this year than we were last year. We’ve been better so far. This was not one of our better defensive performances. But they got some skilled guys that that really made us pay on a few things, too.”

Another Solid Night for Labaron Philon

While the Tide didn't come out with the road victory, there were a few Alabama players who kept them in this game offensively as guard Labaron Philon (18), guard Mark Sears (15), forward Grant Nelson (12) and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. (11) each tallied double figures.

However, Philon has continued a nice start to his collegiate career as the freshman seems to make an impact both on and off of the stat sheet with each passing game. The Crimson Tide, which is known for its high volume of three-point shooting on any given night, didn't convert one until Philon broke the ice with with a make from deep during a stretch where he scored seven straight points for Alabama.

The Tide's sixth-man for the evening also hauled in five rebounds and four assists while applying some solid defensive pressure up top, especially on Braden Smith who although had a 17 points, only went 6-of-18 from the field and 0-of-3 from the three-point line.

"Labaron has been really good," Oats said. "Probably better than what we thought he was going to be...Labaron had such a good game and he had been starting for us. His 18 helped us. We've got to get a little bit better production from some other guys off the bench."

A Mostly Poor Game Down Low Defensively

Alabama center Cliff Omoruyi has been a force to be reckoned with in the paint since his transfer from Rutgers this offseason, as last season's Big Ten blocks leader currently led the Crimson Tide with two per game coming into Friday night––three total blocks ahead of second-place Jarin Stevenson.

Omoruyi extended his lead on Friday night with a whopping four blocks on the Boilermakers. Additionally, Omoruyi was the only member of the Crimson Tide with a positive plus-minus (11), as the next closest was zero from Mouhamed Dioubate, who played for nine minutes. The aforementioned 13-0 run headlined by C.J. Cox's three triples started shortly after Omoruyi went to the bench for a break.

However, rebounding has been an issue for Alabama in the first couple of games of the season and Oats has been very outspoken about it. Nelson and Omoruyi combined for a respectable 14 defensive rebounds (four combined offensive boards), but the Tide still allowed 10 offensive boards which created more ball movement and clock chewing for Purdue and also 16 second-chance points for the Boilermakers.

Additionally, Alabama's frontcourt, a major emphasis for this game against Purdue's bigs, had trouble contesting shots without fouling as Nelson was whistled for five penalties and Omoruyi received four. Freshman big man Aiden Sherrell had two in just his first couple of minutes of action and didn't see the floor for the rest of the game after being taken out.

“Obviously, defensively, we've got to do a better job in the post," Oats said. "We've got to do a better job keeping teams off of the offensive boards and I thought Purdue did a pretty good job on the O-boards with us."

Alabama aims to fix its ongoing mistakes against Illinois for the C.M. Newton Classic in Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday, Nov. 20 at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network.