HUNTSVILLE, Ala.— The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team defeated the Memphis Tigers 96-88 in Monday night’s 2024 Rocket City Classic charity exhibition.
This was Alabama’s second and final preseason scrimmage, as the Crimson Tide plays its first regular season game of the 2024-25 season on Nov. 4 at home against UNC Asheville at 8 p.m. CT on ESPNU.
But before the regular season tipoff, here are three takeaways from the victory:
The Crimson Tide finished last season averaging the most points per game in the entire country due to its three-point shooting ability stemming from an extremely fast-paced offensive system. While Alabama shot an efficient 12-of-31 from downtown (38.7 percent), they didn’t always get the ball up in the air in a timely manner.
Alabama’s renowned pace might have been too fast on Monday night as it was a big factor in the Tide’s 20 turnovers and the Tigers’ 25 points off of them. Memphis also logged 36 fast break points, which came from Alabama’s turnovers and forced shots to keep the tempo going.
“There’s a reason we play the exhibitions—so that we can get exposed a little bit on what we got to work on,” Oats said during the postgame press conference. “We definitely got exposed tonight a little bit. I thought our turnovers were not where we need them to be and we’ve got to do a better job taking care of the ball…And then our transition – I mean, shoot, 36 fastbreak points is not good.”
That said, Oats was content with scheduling a charity scrimmage against what is often regarded as one of college basketball’s more aggressive teams, with head coach Penny Hardaway pulling the strings.
“I think it was really good to play a team like that because we’re gonna have to play Houston yet, we play Tennessee yet,” Oats said. “I didn’t think we did a very good job of handling the physicality most of the games, to be honest with you. That’s why we ended up with 20 turnovers. So we’re gonna be a lot better before we play some of these more aggressive, physical teams that are coming up.”
But on the bright side, the pace played a big role in Alabama’s offense scoring 96 points, which is about six points higher than the average night last season.
If there’s any stat to take away from this game, it’s the baffling numbers from the charity stripe by both teams. Alabama went 30-of-48 from the line while Memphis converted on 29-of-48 attempts. In total, 96 free throws were attempted on Monday night!
While it’s good that the Crimson Tide offense constantly got to the line, like Memphis, Alabama didn’t know how to defend without fouling either. It seemed as though the Tigers made a trip to free-throw line once every couple of minutes.
While the whistles never ended, the offensive rebounding category was another issue that often led to Memphis getting fouled on put-back attempts. This was especially apparent throughout the second half as the Tigers strived for a comeback.
“Our defensive rebounding, our transition defense, they exposed in a bad way,” Oats said. “They got all over the offensive boards, they had 23. They kind of came from everywhere, too…I think we gave up 16 points in the first three minutes of the second half. I didn’t think our mentality was right coming out of the half, which was a little disappointing, a little immature.”
“I thought we got driven too much and gave up offensive rebounds. The first possession of the second half, we gave up an [offensive] board and gave up another one at the free-throw line. Fouled too much. Our mentality wasn’t good to start the second half and it kind of continued the entire second half.”
Warnings were made throughout the offseason that Alabama’s backcourt will be among the most elite in college basketball this season, and fans got to catch a glimpse of it on Saturday night. Guards Mark Sears and Labaron Philon were the heavy offensive producers for Alabama as the two combined for 37 points on 11-of-20 from the field, including 5-of-10 from deep, and 11 assists. They were each first and second on the team in these stat categories.
It’s absolutely worth mentioning that fellow guard Houston Mallette had a really nice game, as the Pepperdine transfer shot all five of his attempts from three-point range and made three of them. He is already showing a lot of promise in Oats’ system as he did this in just a little over 14 minutes of action. This is extra impressive as Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Chris Youngblood didn’t play due to injuries. Youngblood suffered an ankle injury a few weeks ago and Oats is “expecting him to be 100 percent by conference play.”
The depth at forward was also very noticeable as Mo Dioubate and Jarin Stevenson each logged 11 points while Derrion Reid finished with nine and a block. Dioubate’s eight rebounds only trailed center Cliff Omoruyi for the team lead, and all three of them also recorded a steal. Like Mallette, these numbers mean a bit more due to forwards Grant Nelson and Aiden Sherrell being absent from the lineup due to injuries.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do before the regular season, but I thought it was good that we got some young guys. Labaron is a freshman that got to play,” Oats said. “Holloway’s in his first year with us and he got to play a decent amount of minutes with some of those other guys being out. Derrion’s been out a lot in the summer and fall with some injuries, so he’s a little bit rusty, but we were able to get him 24 minutes. We need to get Cliff kind of used to our pace and our system a little bit more.”
“I think we got a lot of new guys a lot of minutes. Out of the five starters, only one was with us last year, and off the bench, Mo and Jarin were with us last year, that was it. I think we needed to get to new guys kind of used to how we play, but we gotta be a lot better in a lot of areas.”
