TAMPA, Fla. — On Thursday night inside Amalie Arena in its first game of the SEC Tournament, the consistently inconsistent defense of Alabama basketball gave its fanbase a few more reasons to scratch their collective heads.
In the Crimson Tide’s 82-76 loss that sent the team packing out of the arena, the team’s defense provided a resolute first half. In the game’s first 20 minutes, Alabama forced Vanderbilt to shoot just 26 percent from the floor and 23 percent from beyond the 3-point line.
The Crimson Tide also forced nine turnovers, converting them into seven points. In rebounds, Alabama outpaced the Commodores once again, this time by a margin of 24-17.
However, the second half was nothing short of disaster. In the final 20 minutes, Vanderbilt shot exactly 50 percent from the floor and 46.2 percent from deep, boosting its overall percentage to 39.6 percent on the game and 34.6 percent from 3-point territory. Combine all of that with 68.9 percent shooting on the game from the free-throw line (31-of-45), and the combined ingredients formed the perfect recipe for a Commodores comeback.
After the game, Crimson Tide junior guard Jaden Shackelford said that the key to improving his team’s defense and developing the ability to play for 40 minutes starts far ahead of the game’s opening whistle.
“Like Coach Oats said, being more locked into the scouting report, not giving shooters open threes off of actions that we’ve gone over multiple times in practice, and really just locking in and getting stops,” Shackelford said. “I feel like there’s got to be an intensity about us going into the NCAA tournament to just get stops and shut the other team down.”
Fellow junior guard Jahvon Quinerly echoed his teammate.
“I just think kind of need a mindset shift in practice, walk-throughs because we guard these actions — we guard these actions two, three days, and then the game comes, and we don’t guard them the way we were guarding them in practice and the shoot-around,” Quinerly said. “So just needs to be a mindset shift. We just got — it has to be some type of carry-over into the game. Obviously, the turnovers, that’s something that needs to be shut — that’s something that needs to be cut down.”
Free throws were certainly a key part of Vanderbilt’s win. With a 6-point margin of victory in favor of the Commodores, it’s clear that making 31 of 45 attempts from the charity stripe was an obvious factor in the win. However, many of the fouls that sent Vanderbilt to the free-throw line came as a result of poor decisions made by the Alabama players on the court.
Both Shackelford and Quinerly fouled out of the game in the final minutes, giving Vanderbilt a much-needed boost. Senior guard Keon Ellis finished the game with four fouls. Charles Bediako, James Rojas and Darius Miles each had three.
Officiating didn’t cost Alabama the game on Thursday night. Poor defense, poor decision-making and lack of effort did the job.
For Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats, the beginning to resolving Alabama’s problems heading into the NCAA Tournament begins and ends with getting his team locked in.
“Got to be a little bit more mentally tough,” Oats said. “It’s not — it wasn’t going great in the first half. I think we were 10 of 18 in the first half. We just need to turn it around and step up and make them, but that’s kind of our deal.
“When you are locked in, I think you’re locked in. I think you’re taking care of the ball, stepping to the free-throw line, making free-throws. I think you’re locked into the scouting report. I don’t know if everybody was quite as locked in as they needed to be tonight.”
Gallery: Alabama Basketball Falls to Vanderbilt in SEC Tournament
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism