Alabama comes up with strong response to first loss of the season

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — During his press conference on Tuesday, Alabama coach Nate Oats challenged his team to come up with a response after suffering its first defeat of the season. The Tide lost 87-78 to Purdue in a hostile Mackey Arena on Friday and couldn’t afford to let its heads drop as it prepared to face another elite Big Ten opponent in Illinois.

Alabama’s response was a testament to its depth. The Crimson Tide and rebounded from a loss to a ranked Big Ten team, with a 100-87 win over another one in Legacy Arena on Wednesday.

The win secured Alabama’s first victory over a Power Five opponent this season and the way the Tide pulled off the win was even more impressive than the win itself. Alabama scored 100 points despite its best player, Mark Sears not being responsible for any of them. The Tide weathered an Illinois comeback effort in the second half and closed out the game despite still struggling in a few areas and with Sears bottled up.

“I think it’s big,” Oats said after the game. “We need to play against a high-major team, a good one, a top-25 team and to be able to get a win and I didn’t even think we played great in a lot of areas. I mean, you look at the offensive rebounds we gave up. We didn’t shoot it particularly well from some of our better shooters and we were still able to score 100 points. We did take care of the ball a lot better and I thought our defense improved.”

Alabama faced some similar adversity against both Illinois and Purdue but handled that adversity in key areas better against the Fighting Illini than it did against the Boilermakers. Alabama forced just three turnovers against Purdue and had 13 takeaways against Illinois, which turned into 18 points. Though the 3-point shooting numbers were similar in both games, the Tide moved the ball much better and assisted 23 of its shots against Wednesday compared to 18 against the Boilermakers.

Still, Oats wants to see a continued response after an impressive victory against a ranked…

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Author : Tide Illustrated

Publish date : 2024-11-21 05:38:00

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