Tide beats Lamar 75-47

Releford and Steele did not dress due to illness...

The European part of Tide

     We have a better idea of the value of Trevor Releford and Andrew Steele. Had this game been anyone else on our schedule we might have come out on the short end. Releford runs the offense like he owns it. Steele has a calming effect and shows senior leadership for a still youthful team. Despite being without the "old men" of the team Alabama pulled away for a solid win. Not all was guns and roses for the Tide:

• Free throws remain a problem. I mean that we don't shoot enough or make enough
• Three point shooting has been really good this season but not against Lamar
• The defense caused a lot  of turnovers but made a lot of turnovers. It hurt not having Andrew and Trevor on the floor
• Overall shooting was pretty bad, but Alabama's best shooter did not play. But Bama clawed their way up to 48% by games end.
• The Tide played pretty sloppy but without your point guard that can happen.
• Alabama didn't  dominate reboundng but got a lot of points in the paint. The Tide clearly owned the glass in the second half
• The Tide took advantage of the turnovers they caused and got a ton of points off them.

     Regardless of all those problems the Tide still forged a 30 point lead in the second half. You can chalk that up due to hard play. It wasn't very pretty it the Tide worked hard. It was more of a meat cleaver effort. One thing we DID learn that their is some decent depth. Dakota Slaughter and Keon Blackledge showed they can play and contribute. Slaughter, in particular, showed he can help the team inside. Devonta Pollard is slowly getting settled in. For the night he was 3-6 and had 4 rebounds. No where near his potential but he is starting to look better. Slaughter had 10 points and he'll get some additional minutes in the future. Cooper led Bama with 17. Obahasan had 10 including two 3 point buckets. The big numbers for Alabama was the 34 points scored in the paint, 20 points off turnovers, and 19 points after grabbing an offensive board.

      In the morning article we said the real question about this game would not be whether Alabama would win. The real question is that they held a Division One team to 47 points. That happened. If you told me the Tide would do that and have Releford and Steele unavailable I'd said it wouldn't happen.  Bama now goes from playing one of the worst teams in the NCAA to one of the best. Cincinnati is is averaging almost 50 rebounds a game. This will be a big test for the Tide. A win would cause the nation to take notice of Grant's team.


SEC OPINIONS - Redshirt off of Black?

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