Hoops Hits Road for Mercer

[Crimson Surfer]

Tide Hoops Hits Road for Game Two

Game two of the 2007-08 basketball season finds the University of Alabama, 1-0, playing at Mercer, 1-0, in Macon, Ga., on Tuesday, November 13 at 6:30 p.m. CT/7:30 p.m. ET. Following are quotes from Crimson Tide Head Coach Mark Gottfried and Alabama players Richard Hendrix and Senario Hillman for use in stories previewing Tuesday night’s game.

 

[Crimson Surfer]

Tide's Next Opponent Looks Like A Bear

Mark Gottfried said when he released his 2007-08 University of Alabama basketball schedule a couple of months ago that the competition was strong. On the first full weekend of basketball, his point was driven in when unranked Mercer traveled across the country and soundly defeated then No. 18 ranked Southern California on the road 96-81.

On Tuesday night Coach Mark Gottfried's Alabama men's basketball team plays game two of its 2007-08 schedule. The Crimson Tide, 1-0, plays at Mercer, 1-0, at 6:30 p.m. CT/7:30 p.m. ET at a sold out University Center in Macon, Ga. The game will not be televised. Fans can listen to it on the radio on the Crimson Tide Sports Network or by linking on to listen to CTSN’s broadcast through Alabama’s official website, www.rolltide.com.

 

[Bama 3:16]

We better get off to a good start tonight if we're going to win. We can't give up a ton of 3's like we traditionally do at the beginning of a road contest. Mercer led USC by 17 at the half the other night and was never challeneged. A road win against a potential conference winner would be nice. Troy, Mercer & Belmont all could win their conference and be in the NCAA. USM won over 20 games last year so these first 4 games are very challenging despite the fact that they are not necessarily big basketball name opponents.

Turnovers have to be cut down compared to the Troy game too. If we run our offense through Hendrix and keep feeding him in the post, we'll win tonight. If we go away from him for extended periods of time, it will be a long evening.

 

[rtr1973]

Looked at the stats from the Mercer-USC game. Mercer didn't shoot an unusually large number of 3s. James Florence (6-1 PG) was their leading scorer, but only 2 of his 11 buckets were 3s. Their 60% shooting and 12 steals were more telling stats. Looks like they got a lot of easy buckets off steals/turnovers.

 

[Crimson Surfer]

Tide faces a Mercer team fresh off upset win of USC

University of Alabama basketball coach Mark Gottfried has made a reputation in recent years of playing the best teams college basketball has to offer.

It’s possible that this time, not even Gottfried knew quite what he was getting into.

That’s not to say that the Crimson Tide coach didn’t know that tonight’s road game at Mercer in Macon, Ga. (6:30 p.m. CT tipoff) would be tough. Any road game is difficult, especially in a small, raucous gymnasium.