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CLEVELAND — Alabama basketball players have repeated Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats' philosophy all season long.
If you trust your defense, the offense will come, Oats believes. Against No. 15 seed Robert Morris on Friday in the NCAA Tournament , fans in Rocket Arena saw the shift in big man Clifford Omoruyi as he was a critical piece to the No. 2 seed Crimson Tide's 90-81 first-round win in the East Region.
Omoruyi didn't quite match his career best, set last season when he played for Rutgers with 25 points against Long Island. However, the NCAA Tournament wasn't a bad time to decide to put together the highest-scoring performance at Alabama.
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Until Friday, Omoruyi's best outing in a crimson and white jersey came against UNC-Asheville in the season opener. After that 16-point performance, the 6-foot-11 graduate student often found himself under fire for not quite living up to what fans thought he would be offensively, although his 7-foot-6 wingspan won nearly every tip-off and provided Alabama (26-8) the rim protection it lacked on last year's Final Four run.
Omoruyi finished with a perfect day of shooting against Robert Morris, going 8-for-8 from the floor for 17 points.
"My teammates were finding me," Omoruyi smiled. "We were just having fun."
Led by 10 assists from Mark Sears and eight more by Labaron Philon, Alabama set a program-record 25 assists for the NCAA Tournament.
But in the second half, Omoruyi played just seven minutes after dropping 15 points over 14 minutes in the first period. It wasn't a case of foul trouble. Instead, Alabama coach Nate Oats highlighted the second-half effort of Mo Dioubate, who had nine of his 10 boards to lead the team in the last 20 minutes.
"We needed all those points. It was more Mo in the second half, Cliff in the first half. But we needed both of them to play big for us," Oats said.
Omoruyi said he isn't as worried about continuing his production on offense as he is continuing his production on defense.
"I didn't feel like I had my best day defensively," Omoruyi said. He tallied two blocks and three steals.
"I felt like our pick-and-roll offense got behind their ball-screen defense. I thought we did a good job of that early. Mark (Sears) kept saying 'play more pick-and-rolls, play more pick-and-rolls,' " Oats said. "Cliff did a great job finishing, Dioubate as usual did a good job finishing. Both those guys are good finishers."
Omouryi averages 7.6 points and 6.6 rebounds, shooting 73.5%.
Ready to win March Madness? Join USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool today
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball's Clifford Omoruyi shows he can be X-factor in March
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If you trust your defense, the offense will come, Oats believes. Against No. 15 seed Robert Morris on Friday in the NCAA Tournament , fans in Rocket Arena saw the shift in big man Clifford Omoruyi as he was a critical piece to the No. 2 seed Crimson Tide's 90-81 first-round win in the East Region.
Omoruyi didn't quite match his career best, set last season when he played for Rutgers with 25 points against Long Island. However, the NCAA Tournament wasn't a bad time to decide to put together the highest-scoring performance at Alabama.
ON THE RECRUITING TRAIL: Alabama basketball getting family man in 2025 Gatorade Player of the Year Amari Allen
MEET MARK SEARS, CADET: Alabama basketball star's adventures in military school
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Until Friday, Omoruyi's best outing in a crimson and white jersey came against UNC-Asheville in the season opener. After that 16-point performance, the 6-foot-11 graduate student often found himself under fire for not quite living up to what fans thought he would be offensively, although his 7-foot-6 wingspan won nearly every tip-off and provided Alabama (26-8) the rim protection it lacked on last year's Final Four run.
Omoruyi finished with a perfect day of shooting against Robert Morris, going 8-for-8 from the floor for 17 points.
Can Clifford Omoruyi be Alabama basketball's X-factor in NCAA Tournament?
"My teammates were finding me," Omoruyi smiled. "We were just having fun."
Led by 10 assists from Mark Sears and eight more by Labaron Philon, Alabama set a program-record 25 assists for the NCAA Tournament.
But in the second half, Omoruyi played just seven minutes after dropping 15 points over 14 minutes in the first period. It wasn't a case of foul trouble. Instead, Alabama coach Nate Oats highlighted the second-half effort of Mo Dioubate, who had nine of his 10 boards to lead the team in the last 20 minutes.
"We needed all those points. It was more Mo in the second half, Cliff in the first half. But we needed both of them to play big for us," Oats said.
Omoruyi said he isn't as worried about continuing his production on offense as he is continuing his production on defense.
"I didn't feel like I had my best day defensively," Omoruyi said. He tallied two blocks and three steals.
"I felt like our pick-and-roll offense got behind their ball-screen defense. I thought we did a good job of that early. Mark (Sears) kept saying 'play more pick-and-rolls, play more pick-and-rolls,' " Oats said. "Cliff did a great job finishing, Dioubate as usual did a good job finishing. Both those guys are good finishers."
Omouryi averages 7.6 points and 6.6 rebounds, shooting 73.5%.
Ready to win March Madness? Join USA TODAY’s Survivor Pool today
Emilee Smarr covers Alabama basketball and Crimson Tide athletics for the Tuscaloosa News. She can be reached via email at esmarr@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball's Clifford Omoruyi shows he can be X-factor in March
Continue reading...
