Three Takeaways From Alabama Basketball’s Rough Loss to Florida
No. 7 Alabama men’s basketball fell to No. 5 Florida 99-94 at home on Wednesday night.
It was the Crimson Tide’s final home game of the regular season and Senior Night for five players (four on scholarship). This celebratory event ended on a sour note that made the postgame ceremony not as festive as hoped for. The rough night became Alabama’s fourth loss in the last six games––all of which came against ranked teams.
There’s so much to dissect from this matchup at Coleman Coliseum. Here are three takeaways:
Alabama Bullied By Florida Down Low
Defense has been a touchy subject for Alabama throughout the season and Wednesday night truly furthered that notion as Florida’s 99 points are the second-most allowed by the Crimson Tide in a game this season.
Some of Alabama’s poor defensive performances have stemmed from the three-point line while others were down low and in the paint. This was without question the latter and it was an issue all night long.
Alabama allowed Florida to shoot 49 percent from the floor and score 52 points in the paint. The Crimson Tide really struggled with the Gators’ physicality as it was demolished in the rebounding battle 50-35, including 16 offensive rebounds which led to 19 second-chance points.
Gators guard and Bob Cousy Award finalist Walter Clayton Jr. was a big part of this interior decorating as he logged 22 points via several layups and jump shots inside the paint and also dished a team-high eight assists.
“[Florida] looked like they had more energy, to be honest with you,” Oats said during the postgame press conference. “I don’t know if it’s a lag from the tough loss at Tennessee or our guys are just tired. I don’t know. But to get out-rebounded by 15, we knew they were a tough rebounding team, but we’re usually better than that as we go into a game knowing we’ve got to rebound. It seemed like they beat us to about every 50-50 ball.
“They obviously destroyed us on the glass. In second-chance points, they had us doubled, and we gave up 26 fastbreak points according to our stats, which is terrible. 26 points in fastbreak, 19 second-chance is 45. That’s about half their points came on second-chance and transition. So we’ve got to be better.”
And while Clayton had a very solid outing, Florida head coach Todd Golden said during the postgame press conference that forward Alex Condon had “obviously the best game as a Gator.” He was a nightmare for Alabama’s defense as he finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds (five offensive).
Every time the Crimson Tide would even think of cutting close, Condon would just slam these outrageous alley-oops that put the jaws of Florida’s bench on the floor while silencing Coleman Coliseum. Condon was all over Alabama’s frontcourt as the Tide had no answers.
“He’s good,” Oats said. “I mean, we didn’t do a great job with our coverage, using those handoffs and ball screens that he kind of got downhill and caught the lobs. He’s a good player. He’s skilled. He led their team in plus-minus with plus-12 in his 30 minutes. We obviously didn’t do a great job on him.
“He made a couple of threes, which we knew he could shoot. He had hit 11 on the year, I believe, coming into this. We kind of gambled a little bit on some of our coverages, leaving him open, and he made us pay on it.”
Two Crimson Tide Guards Came to Play
As previously stated, Wednesday’s game was Senior Night as five Alabama players (four scholarship) were being honored for their impact on the program. But of the four that played, only one truly showed up from start to finish.
Simply put, Alabama guard and Bob Cousy Award finalist Mark Sears is on fire lately. Sears went off for 30 points yet again for his third 30-plus-point performance in the last five games. He wasn’t at his sharpshooting best, only hitting a pair of triples, but made 10 baskets from the field. He also had five assists, six rebounds and didn’t turn it over once.
Sears currently sits as Division I’s active leader in points with now 2,736 in his career. The dual-threat is also the only player in the SEC to rank in the top-2 this season in scoring average and assists per game.
Oats has been very open about Sears’ impact in both positive and negative ways, but the guard’s recent hot streak has kept the Alabama head coach on his good side.
“He’s done a lot for us,” Oats said. “Obviously, he was our leading scorer in the first and only Final Four we’ve ever played in. He was a National Player of the Year candidate going into the year. We’ve been a top-10 team all year, and he’s been our leader. I think he’s playing really hard.
“He didn’t shoot it great from 3 tonight, but he’s had some pretty efficient games here over the last month and has given us pretty good effort on [defense]. For a kid from Alabama to do what he’s done these last three years here at Alabama, it would have been nice to send him out with a win on Senior Night.”
Alabama freshman guard Labaron Philon came into Wednesday night following one of his best performances of the season in the loss to Tennessee. Philon had 13 points, four assists, and a career-high five steals against the Vols.
Most of Philon’s numbers in Knoxville, Tenn. came in the first half, while he was a bit more quiet in the second. The opposite occurred against Florida, as after tallying just four points in the first half, he finished the game with 19 points on 8 of 13 from the field including 3-for-4 from downtown.
Florida took multiple 8-14-point leads in the second half, but Philon was a big factor in not allowing the Gators to pull away as the Crimson Tide came within four points with less than a minute to go. Philon went on a cold stretch a few weeks ago mainly due to an ankle injury, but ever since the Texas game, he has been returning to the level that the three-time SEC Freshman of the Week was at early in the season.
The Big Difference With Last Season’s Similarity
Oats knew the final seven games of Alabama’s regular season would be one of, if not the toughest stretch in college basketball. That’s because all of the Tide’s opponents have been ranked at the time of the matchup.
However, Alabama has lost four of the last six with only a road game against No. 1 Auburn left on the schedule before the SEC Tournament. Alabama has gone from the AP Top 25’s No. 2 team in the nation, then to No. 4, then to No. 6 and the Tide could move in the wrong direction from its current No. 7 rank.
“We knew it was going to be a tough stretch to close,” Oats said. “I thought we’d do a little better. I thought we’d at least play with more effort, It’s not being panicked about losing, it’s more concerning how we lost.
Nevertheless, this scenario is somewhat similar to the way Alabama ended last regular season as it went 2-3 in the final five games and also lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament against Florida. The Crimson Tide of course went on to shake these losses off and reach its first Final Four in program history.
Of course, this is a different year with only four healthy returners from last season, but it’s still something to keep in mind. However, Oats noted a distinct difference between his two most recent teams and compared it to Wednesday night’s performance.
“I thought guys quit last year at times,” Oats said. “I was very frustrated with our effort in some of those games late. I don’t think that’s the case here. It looked to me like we didn’t have enough pop, but we fought hard. What did we cut it to, four there late? I told them at the timeout––shoot, we were up four with 30 seconds to go at Tennessee and lost the game. We’ve been in this situation on the other side. So I thought they continued to fight.
“I would anticipate us being a lot better on Saturday at Auburn. I don’t think this group is going to have quit in them. I don’t really have answers as to why we didn’t have pop kind of throughout a lot of the game. But they at least fought and didn’t want to quit.
“I think we got a bunch of pretty high-character kids, young men that are going to keep fighting, where I thought last year, we kind of succumbed to some give-in a little bit, if you will. I didn’t think we had that tonight. We just didn’t quite have the pop we needed to have tonight.”