It wasn’t pretty, but Alabama beat the road through the necessary adversity on Tuesday night in South Carolina. After losing two consecutive matches on other courts, Columbia’s escape 81-78 was important, with three more street games scheduled. for February.
The victory maintained Crimson Tide’s 3.5 point lead over Missouri and Arkansas in the SEC ranking. Four of Alabama’s last six opponents are near the bottom of the league, with a February 24 trip to Arkansas being the only one against a team with a record conference win.
Some other lessons after Alabama’s victory in South Carolina:
– Alabama (16-5, 11-1 SEC) remains in the top 10 on some important measures. The NET ranking still has the Tide No. 9 with Tennessee one position ahead in eighth. KenPom has Alabama No. 8.
– The efficiency of the score has clearly increased over Saturday’s loss to Missouri, but also the proportion of possessions that ended in a turnaround. Tide scored 1.01 points for possession in South Carolina, compared to 0.88 in Missouri, in a 68-65 defeat. Alabama turned 22 or 27.2% of its holdings on Tuesday, up from 17.6% in Missouri.
– Coach Oats explained some of the turnover problems after Tuesday’s game. “Some of them were just mistreated,” he said. “With Herb (Jones), he ends up with seven assists, so at least he was making moves by moving the ball, but for him to have four turns, many of them were just handling errors.”
– Alabama’s pitch percentage was only slightly better than the 3-point success rate. He scored 9 out of 21 on the edge (42.8%) and 12 out of 34 on the perimeter (35.3%). The tide went from 3 to 3 sinking the ball, while the Gamecocks went from 4 to 6.
– Jones was fouled for the first time since the SEC’s victory over Ole Miss on December 29. He ended each of the previous two games with four fouls and the senior’s three points were below double digits for the fourth consecutive game. Jones’ seven assists were just under the top eight of his career in his home victory over Kentucky on January 27.
– Jahvon Quinerly has been efficient on the 3-point line recently, even though Oats pulled him by 1 point in the second half of Tuesday for a reckless attempt. He is 7 out of 12 in the last three games in which he has reached double digits in each match. He had nine points combined in the previous three games. Villanova’s transfer is shooting 46.8% in 3s in conference games. This reflects John Petty’s success rate, although Quinerly only tried 35 to 79 for Petty in the league.
– Playing on a team in South Carolina coached by Frank Martin always means a blunt game in painting. This Tuesday was no different. “It was very physical, but that’s what we like,” said Petty. “People may think that our team is not physical or that it is not uncompromising, but this is what we build, this is what he talks about and this is what we will continue to improve with every game. If all games are like that, we love it. We love that physical. “
– Alabama returns to the Coleman Coliseum at 2:30 pm on Saturday to face Georgia. Bulldogs are 12-6 overall and 5-6 in the SEC, entering Wednesday’s game in Tennessee.
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or in Facebook.