Don’t worry. Alabama men’s basketball knows it didn’t play well.
Alabama forward Grant Nelson, in his return to his home state, didn’t mince words talking about the Crimson Tide’s 97-90 victory over North Dakota in Grand Forks, North Dakota on Wednesday that came down to the final minute.
“We played awful, pretty much the whole game,” said Nelson, a former North Dakota State player. “We came in, we didn’t take these guys seriously. I was telling them, this is a big game on their home court. We’ve got to take these guys serious. They’re playing for a lot.”
It showed. The Fighting Hawks (4-9) battled from start to finish, holding a lead at halftime and even tying the game with two minutes left. Alabama’s 13 first-half turnovers proved problematic early. Then the Crimson Tide (9-2) fixed its turnover problem but stopped playing good defense.
“We got yelled at like we should have,” said Nelson, a Devils Lake, North Dakota native. “I’m sure we’ll continue to get yelled at the rest of this week. But like I said, they played really great. It’s a great team and I think they’ll win a lot of games.”
Alabama coach Nate Oats was particularly frustrated by his defense. North Dakota scored 52 points in the second half, averaging 1.486 points per possession.
“I give North Dakota credit; they wanted this game,” Oats said. “They were ready for it. Great environment. Crowd was great. And our guys didn’t really come out ready to play. Our matchup on (Treysen) Eaglestaff wasn’t great to start. I don’t know that we really ever found the matchup.”
Eaglestaff scored 40 points, making him the first mid-major player to do so against a team ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll since 2012, per ESPN. The Bismarck, North Dakota native kept the Fighting Hawks in it until the end as he hit 15 of 30 and 8 of 18 from deep. Nelson, meanwhile, scored 23 points to go with 10 rebounds.
“Can’t sleep on those North Dakota boys,” Nelson said. “They can really hoop. I’ve known him for a while. I played him when he was here and I was at North Dakota State. I knew he was a great player. Our scouting report was pretty much around him.”
Which made it all the more frustrating that Eaglestaff did what he did.
“I feel like we let ourselves down,” Nelson said. “We’ve got a lot to learn. We’re going to watch video and see what we can do better.”
Nick Kelly is an Alabama beat writer for AL.com and the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on X and Instagram.
