TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 2 Alabama basketball team survived a bit of a second game scare on Friday night as the Arkansas Red Wolves came into Coleman Coliseum and tested the Crimson Tide. Alabama won the contest 88-79 to move to 2-0 on the young season, but a major problem plagued the Crimson Tide, causing the game to be much closer than need be.
Alabama got to the free throw line a whopping 44 times on Friday night as the Crimson Tide got into the lane effectively and took advantage of a tight whistle to get the Red Wolves in foul trouble. Unfortunately the Crimson Tide couldn’t convert at a satisfactory rate as they only made 28, leaving 16 points on the table and creating questions about the team’s acumen at the charity stripe.
“Yeah, I think we’ve got a really skilled team, just to answer the free throw deal,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. “I’m not overly concerned but our guys need to come locked in. To be honest with you, you look at the guys that missed them, I mean Labaron is five of nine, he should be seven or eight of nine. Mark Sears is consistently over his career been a great free throw shooter, he goes 11 of 16, I mean you expect him to go, shoot, 14, 15, 16 of 16. So it’s not like these are guys that I expect to keep missing them, keep missing them. Those would be the main two culprits in my opinion.
“Some other guys go -Jarin’s got to do better he went oh for one, low sample size again, but Derrion one for two, you can’t have a lot of guys step up and go one for two, two for four, Cliff went four for four Monday night and then goes two for four tonight. Really, nobody outside of Wrightsell shot the way we needed them to. Everybody’s got to be a little bit better. I think we will be I think we’ve just got to come in a little bit more focused.”
It was the second straight game the Crimson Tide’s gotten to the free throw line effectively as Alabama shot 37 free throws in the season opener against UNC-Asheville. Oats’ team converted 26 on Monday for a 70-percent rate leaving more to be desired for a team that’s oozing with offensive talent. Looking even further back to Alabama’s exhibition win over the Memphis Tigers it’s easy to notice the Crimson Tide converted 30 of 48 for 63-percent, marking the charity stripe a quick place Alabama can improve on the young season.
