Bama Game Thread: MBB Senior Night - Bama vs Gators - 6pm CST ESPN2

[Bama Shoals]

We may not deserve him as a coach if this is a common feeling. This is the kind of stuff that will make him leave.

What part of that is false?

 

[December05]

Now 1-5 against the other top 6 in the conference. After Auburn got shellacked last night, you think we have a shot Saturday? That will make a 2-5 end to the regular season. Oats is going to have to reevaluate his program and figure out how to inject more toughness and defense to win at the highest levels. And he’s probably learned not to run his mouth so much in the offseason about his team being good enough to win a national championship. I hope so at least. Very disappointing!

Somewhat agree about the end of the season, but we may need to reevaluate our disdain for going back to the NIT days before Coach needs to reevaluate anything.

He’s learning as well and is still on the front half of his career most likely.

 

[Rolltidegirl205]

I don't know what's going on with the boys and coach but I hope they find something inside of them to make a decent run into the tournament.

I don't know what else to say.

 

[rjtide]

b'ball is about match ups. the way i've seen it we have NOT matched up well with teams that have an interior physical presence. we need a big body on the inside, a bigger presence than what we have now. the perimeter on our team is fine but the lack of a true interior big man is coming back to bite us.

 

[CajunCrimson]

What part of that is false?

It’s the difference between saying, “I’m a fan, and I hate it when we lose” and “I’m an immature overly emotional drive-by basketball fan who wants to insult the coach”

Sometimes it’s not the statement, it’s the attitude that goes with it

Statements like that hurt the program. Plain and simple. You get too many people spouting that rhetoric, you lose a coach

And as someone else just said, if you wanna go back to the days of 18 and 13, hoping to be on the bubble, have at it. But I am as happy as I’ve ever been as an Alabama basketball fan.

We are an elite team, regardless of what other others are thinking. Sometimes we have bad matchups. Florida is a bad matchup for us, due to the simple fact that their defense is almost the perfect fit for our offense

Auburn, however, is not. Tennessee is not a bad matchup for us. Missouri isn’t a bad matchup for us. But sometimes the other team and their athletes are good too.

I realize there are different ways to be a fan. Some ways are way more attractive than others. I struggle with the drive-by: bash the players, bash the coach, and offer zero positive
Fan.

It’s not the what, it’s the how

 

[bamadwain]

As coach said in his post game, we gave up 26 fast break points and 19 second chance points, almost half their points right there, gotta play better defense and get back on defense, losing to Auburn and Florida at home is tough but that's two very good teams, losing to UT and Missouri on the road ( Missouri shot the light's out) are good teams, the one that bites us is the loss to Ole Miss, should not have happened

 

[BamaInBham]

At least at this point, I feel like we have very much underachieved in the regular season given the preseason hype. A win Saturday would slightly improve that, but in the end, the team that we were supposed to be doesn’t lose every single game against Auburn, Florida, Mizzou, and Tennessee. Maybe split, but not losing every one.

With that said, there is reason for taking an optimistic view. We’ve suffered injuries - if Reid and Youngblood were 100% the whole year we likely do better. Three of those four teams play a brand of ball that give us a lot of trouble - and not many tourney teams can do that. Unlike many teams who had their best opponents spaced out, we had them bunched up. Our seniors, looking at the end of their careers, might suddenly rise up and insist on being remembered for the group who pushed Bama to the top.

Ready to move into tourney season and put the regular season to bed!

This has not been the team that Alabama thought it would put on the floor this year. Missing Wrightsell: best 3pt shooter and according to many the best on-ball defender; Reid: the most athletic and talented front court player; Mallette: IMO, a top-notch shooter and energetic presence. 3 big losses.

If the officiating is as bad as many of y’all indicate, it could be genuinely demoralizing to the players and Oats. But it seems like he would get a tech or two rather than shrinking away unless he believes there is no hope.

 

[BamaMoon]

Against UT I thought we outplayed them and just got clipped at the end.

Last night, it felt like we are just not as good as UF.

A team with great bigs like AU and UF is our kryptonite.

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

This team most certainly has depth issues.

Losing Wrightsell and Mallete was CRUCIAL. Reid on top of that has really really taken a toll on us.

 

[BamaMoon]

b'ball is about match ups. the way i've seen it we have NOT matched up well with teams that have an interior physical presence. we need a big body on the inside, a bigger presence than what we have now. the perimeter on our team is fine but the lack of a true interior big man is coming back to bite us.

I agree. The 4 and 5 position has been the weakness of this team.

I think we all thought we'd get more out of Cliff. In the SEC he's not what he was where he came from.

Stephenson, in year 2 is a bust. I know some won't like that, but I don't know what else to say at this point. He can't shoot and he's weak in the paint.

Nelson has his weaknesses, but at least he seems to play hard, but his shooting outside of point blank range has gotten worse instead of better this year. Is he playing hurt?

Mo D. - love his motor but he's not consistently good game to game.

Sherrell - best ceiling of the bunch. It really hurt when he went out of the game last night IMO. He just needs to learn how to use his massive body and be more aggressive.

 

[CaliforniaTide]

I think it's possible the guys are just tired. It's also the regular season; get a little double bye before playing their first postseason game will help them. They seemed tired at this point last year, and ended up going to the Final Four.

This is what it takes to keep playing this level in college basketball. Even among the blue bloods of the sport they weren't winning every year or every other year. With Coach Oats and his methods, Alabama is giving itself a shot almost every season, in stark contrast to my time as a student and fan leading up to Nate Oats hire. Give me this kind of season over the past seasons before Nate Oats anyday.

 

[BamaMoon]

I think it's possible the guys are just tired. It's also the regular season; get a little double bye before playing their first postseason game will help them. They seemed tired at this point last year, and ended up going to the Final Four.

This is what it takes to keep playing this level in college basketball. Even among the blue bloods of the sport they weren't winning every year or every other year. With Coach Oats and his methods, Alabama is giving itself a shot almost every season, in stark contrast to my time as a student and fan leading up to Nate Oats hire. Give me this kind of season over the past seasons before Nate Oats anyday.

Just posted in the Omnibus thread that rest might be more important than doing well in the SEC Tourney this year.

Every SEC is showing the grind has got to them. Especially us!

 

[Bama Shoals]

Somewhat agree about the end of the season, but we may need to reevaluate our disdain for going back to the NIT days before Coach needs to reevaluate anything.

He’s learning as well and is still on the front half of his career most likely.

We should always be learning. But Nate Oats is in his 10th year of being a head coach of a D1 basketball program, 6th year at Alabama. He's not a newbie. And he's making 5 million dollars this year alone with increases coming in the next few years. He's not paid like a coach in the developmental phase. And he's certainly not paid like a coach who should make the kinds of mistakes made at the end of the Tennessee game.

Look, I know Oats has taken Alabama to a new level. I've followed Alabama basketball since I was a little kid growing up in Alabama. His style is fun to watch but I also think we may have hit the ceiling. We can overwhelm teams who aren't very skilled and not very physical and teams who are just physical and not skilled. But when we play someone who is both, we are cooked. To get past that, he's going to have to inject more toughness and defense into his system. Otherwise, I'm afraid we are stuck and that's frustrating.