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NEWARK, N.J. — After a record-shattering Sweet 16, Alabama basketball fell flat in the Elite Eight.
Three NCAA Tournament wins made it easy to forget the sins that cursed the Crimson Tide before the program's fifth consecutive March Madness run began. However, it was only a couple weeks ago that the returning Final Four team didn't play well down the stretch through the SEC Tournament. That was the version of Alabama (28-9) that showed up for the East Region championship.
No. 1 seed Duke crushed the Crimson Tide 85-65 on Saturday at Prudential Center, and in the words of Blue Devils guard Sion James, it was "by committee." To coach Jon Scheyer, the keys were not taking "the bait" of getting spread out and his guys not being "spooked" by the 25 3-pointers that took place in Alabama's win over BYU.
For folks who have been following the Crimson Tide since the season opener in October, Saturday was another case of Alabama beating itself because it didn't adjust to the pressure, and by the time coaching staff made the changes to try, it was too late.
"They kept playing hard," Oats said of his team. "Just Duke was good."
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"We were switching a lot. Especially in the second half," James said.
Just as much as guards Tyrese Proctor or James, 7-foot-2 freshman Khaman Maluach was locked on All-American Mark Sears. Showing the fifth-year senior bodies on bodies saw Sears finish 2-for-12 with six points with a team-high six assists that were dulled by five turnovers of 11 total for Alabama.
"The big thing for him was just making sure that whoever was guarding the ball knew they weren't on an island by themselves, and making sure Sears knew that he wasn't on an island with our big, or whoever else, and I think we did a good job for the most part of keeping him off the foul line, which is where he gets a lot of his points from," James said.
Duke (35-3) wasn't the first team to keep Sears from his nifty ways of finding the one-line, though. In the last seven games of the season, with the exception of going 11-for-13 on free throws against Robert Morris, Sears had no more than four attempts from the foul line.
In SEC Tournament semifinals against Florida, Sears only had nine points and three came from free throws.
When explaining what went wrong, Oats listed offensive rebounding first, immediately followed by Alabama's efforts at the one-line.
"We kind of said we need to be elite at getting to the free throw line. We didn't," Oats said.
The Gators' 104-82 final on Mar. 15 was almost a prophecy for Alabama's fate against Duke, as was the trip to Tennessee.
The Crimson Tide finished the season with its worst performance from the floor of the year, shooting 35.6% with 23 makes on 65 attempts. Florida held Alabama to just over 41% from the floor in the SEC Tournament, just like Zakai Zeigler and Tennessee. In both losses, layups were a problem. Its last time out against Florida, Alabama was 10-for-22 on layups. At Tennessee, the Crimson Tide converted 12 of 29 attempts at the rim.
The Duke defeat saw Alabama out-rebounded by 11, only making nine layups on 20 tries while going 3-for-5 on dunks.
"Grant [Nelson] was the only guy on a team with more than one o-board, so we've got to get better," Oats said.
Nelson's dunk with 3:33 to go in the first half made it a six-point game, but missing the rebound on the following defensive possession after Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg couldn't hit a layup killed the momentum that Alabama was building, which saw the Blue Devils build a 10-point lead three more times by halftime.
From downtown, Alabama had two more threes than Duke, but missed 24 of them, which saw the Crimson Tide go 25% from deep. The team's only had one worse performance from three-point range this season. In Auburn's visit to Coleman Coliseum, Alabama went 5-for-26 beyond the perimeter.
"They were just building out," Sears said. "They had a great rim protector at the rim making it hard on us, and they just did a really good job at that."
Although shots struggled to fall for Alabama from tip off, coach Nate Oats and staff didn't opt to go to full court press until about two minutes trickled down to the buzzer. Yet, the Crimson Tide still has the athleticism, depth and fouls to give had the adjustment been made with four or five minutes to play.
"We've got to be able to figure out ways to win when we don't shoot," Oats said.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Where did Alabama basketball's 3-point shot go? How Duke got Tide out of sorts
Continue reading...
Three NCAA Tournament wins made it easy to forget the sins that cursed the Crimson Tide before the program's fifth consecutive March Madness run began. However, it was only a couple weeks ago that the returning Final Four team didn't play well down the stretch through the SEC Tournament. That was the version of Alabama (28-9) that showed up for the East Region championship.
No. 1 seed Duke crushed the Crimson Tide 85-65 on Saturday at Prudential Center, and in the words of Blue Devils guard Sion James, it was "by committee." To coach Jon Scheyer, the keys were not taking "the bait" of getting spread out and his guys not being "spooked" by the 25 3-pointers that took place in Alabama's win over BYU.
For folks who have been following the Crimson Tide since the season opener in October, Saturday was another case of Alabama beating itself because it didn't adjust to the pressure, and by the time coaching staff made the changes to try, it was too late.
"They kept playing hard," Oats said of his team. "Just Duke was good."
NBA BOUND? Alabama basketball's Labaron Philon talks decision to stay with Tide or declare for NBA Draft
THE MORE YOU KNOW! Did you know Alabama basketball won a national championship? That's OK: UA didn't either
"We were switching a lot. Especially in the second half," James said.
Just as much as guards Tyrese Proctor or James, 7-foot-2 freshman Khaman Maluach was locked on All-American Mark Sears. Showing the fifth-year senior bodies on bodies saw Sears finish 2-for-12 with six points with a team-high six assists that were dulled by five turnovers of 11 total for Alabama.
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"The big thing for him was just making sure that whoever was guarding the ball knew they weren't on an island by themselves, and making sure Sears knew that he wasn't on an island with our big, or whoever else, and I think we did a good job for the most part of keeping him off the foul line, which is where he gets a lot of his points from," James said.
Duke (35-3) wasn't the first team to keep Sears from his nifty ways of finding the one-line, though. In the last seven games of the season, with the exception of going 11-for-13 on free throws against Robert Morris, Sears had no more than four attempts from the foul line.
In SEC Tournament semifinals against Florida, Sears only had nine points and three came from free throws.
When explaining what went wrong, Oats listed offensive rebounding first, immediately followed by Alabama's efforts at the one-line.
"We kind of said we need to be elite at getting to the free throw line. We didn't," Oats said.
The Gators' 104-82 final on Mar. 15 was almost a prophecy for Alabama's fate against Duke, as was the trip to Tennessee.
The Crimson Tide finished the season with its worst performance from the floor of the year, shooting 35.6% with 23 makes on 65 attempts. Florida held Alabama to just over 41% from the floor in the SEC Tournament, just like Zakai Zeigler and Tennessee. In both losses, layups were a problem. Its last time out against Florida, Alabama was 10-for-22 on layups. At Tennessee, the Crimson Tide converted 12 of 29 attempts at the rim.
The Duke defeat saw Alabama out-rebounded by 11, only making nine layups on 20 tries while going 3-for-5 on dunks.
"Grant [Nelson] was the only guy on a team with more than one o-board, so we've got to get better," Oats said.
Nelson's dunk with 3:33 to go in the first half made it a six-point game, but missing the rebound on the following defensive possession after Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg couldn't hit a layup killed the momentum that Alabama was building, which saw the Blue Devils build a 10-point lead three more times by halftime.
From downtown, Alabama had two more threes than Duke, but missed 24 of them, which saw the Crimson Tide go 25% from deep. The team's only had one worse performance from three-point range this season. In Auburn's visit to Coleman Coliseum, Alabama went 5-for-26 beyond the perimeter.
"They were just building out," Sears said. "They had a great rim protector at the rim making it hard on us, and they just did a really good job at that."
Although shots struggled to fall for Alabama from tip off, coach Nate Oats and staff didn't opt to go to full court press until about two minutes trickled down to the buzzer. Yet, the Crimson Tide still has the athleticism, depth and fouls to give had the adjustment been made with four or five minutes to play.
"We've got to be able to figure out ways to win when we don't shoot," Oats said.
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Where did Alabama basketball's 3-point shot go? How Duke got Tide out of sorts
Continue reading...
