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Alabama basketball: 3 things the Tide should worry about against Saint Mary’s
By David Wasson
Published:
Survive and advance. Just survive and advance.
That is the ages-old credo of the NCAA Tournament, where higher seeds routinely fall prey to hungrier automatic qualifiers – the hunters hiding in the weeds just waiting to snipe off a big-time pelt for the trophy case.
Alabama certainly felt like the prey for 40 minutes Friday afternoon against Robert Morris, the erstwhile Horizon League champs, which stalked the Crimson Tide all over Cleveland before finally succumbing 90-81. The Colonials employed all measure of armaments trying to keep Alabama from advancing, even taking a 65-64 lead with 7:10 to play before the Tide woke up and snapped out of it.
But still, Alabama did what it had to do – survive and advance. Which is the name of the game.
Make no mistake… if Alabama rolls out the same game against 7th-seeded Saint Mary’s on Saturday night that they displayed against Robert Morris, the Tide will leave Cleveland the same way they did in 2005 (a first-round loss as a No. 5 seed to the Bruce Pearl-coached UW-Milwaukee Panthers).
How does Alabama, a team that earned its first Final Four berth last season and the pick of many to go back to the Final Four again this season, avoid that early upset? It will be pivotal to focus on the following 3 things:
1. Solve Augustas Marciulionis
The Gaels, who earned an at-large bid as the West Coast Conference regular season champs, have already taken down one SEC team so far in March Madness – delivering a 59-56 loss to the Vanderbilt Commodores on Friday. Seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s needed to rally without Marciulionis, who picked up his fourth foul early in the second half and departed with the Gaels trailing by 12 points.
Still, the two-time WCC Player of the Year was a force when he did return – hitting a couple of clutch shots down the stretch to finish with 14 points and eight rebounds. The Lithuania-born guard is a rangy 6-foot-4 and has all the tools to give a suspect Crimson Tide defense fits if he can stay off the pine.
2. Combat the Gaels’ defensive size
The Gaels are big, with the combination of 6-8 forward Paulius Murauskus (another Lithuanian) and 6-10 center Mitchell Saxen roaming the paint and a pair of 7-1 backups ready to go. That back-court beef means Saint Mary’s is one of the best defensive units in the tournament.
Not that should come as any surprise to teams like Indiana and VCU, both of whom have been bamboozled by the Saint Mary’s defense in past tournaments. The Gaels are ranked eighth in the country in defensive efficiency, are fifth in scoring defense (60.7 ppg), allow the fewest 3-point attempts of any team in the country and rarely give up cheap fouls.
Alabama, on the other hand, is the highest-powered offense in America at 91.1 points per game – a figure that almost certainly won’t get approached Sunday evening. If the Tide are going to prevail, they’ll need to maximize possessions and find a way to connect from beyond the arc better than the 28.6 percent shooting from 3-point range they mustered against Robert Morris.
3. Handle the moment
The Crimson Tide might have been able to sneak up on teams in recent years, a sort of residual football-only effect. But Nate Oats’ squad can’t camouflage itself anymore – a trip to the Final Four and a seeming perpetual spot in the Top 10 this season takes care of that.
It also means that Alabama can’t even think about overlooking Saint Mary’s the way it might have with Robert Morris – a team that played fast and loose and with absolutely nothing to lose.
“I mean, I would hope our guys are mature enough not to overlook them, but I do agree with you that based on the energy when the game got tight in the second half and the energy previous to that, it wasn’t quite the same,” Oats said after Alabama’s escape against the Colonials. “I think maybe jumping on them early, getting up 10 right out of the gate, maybe they thought it was going to be easy.
“You try to tell them — I tried to explain to them, I was in the MAC for six years. We went to four tournaments when I was there, three as a head coach. I told them what our mentality was. They got nothing to lose. They’re out there playing with house money, if you will. They’re playing free. They’re letting it go. They’re having fun.
“We can’t let a team — we’re a better team, we know that, obviously. We’re a 2 seed, they’re a 15. But better teams don’t always win if they don’t play harder than the other team.”
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
