BIRMINGHAM — Alabama basketball going through such a tough schedule would have some drawbacks.
Saturday was one of those days.
No. 4 Crimson Tide, who won three out of four ranked matches this season, wasn’t enough to beat No. 15 Gonzaga in Legacy Arena. Alabama’s defense struggled hard as the Bulldogs beat the Crimson Tide 100-90.
Here are some observations and takeaways from the match between No. 4 Alabama (9-2) and No. 15 Gonzaga (9-3) at the CM Newton Classic.
Gonzaga:A basketball one-on-one between Greg Byrne of Alabama AD and Mark Few of Gonzaga?it happened before
Charlie Wilson:‘Living the Dream’: Remembering Alabama Basketball Manager Charlie Wilson
Brandon Miller dominated the second half
Miller performed well in the first half, scoring 10 goals, but took over the game in straight sets in the second half.
It looks like you have access to the sound buttons in Legacy Arena. Whatever he did, he played many times and wowed the crowd. We had an early dunk and then scored almost every way. Triple, drive to basket. He was happy with anything.
He dueled Gonzaga’s offense almost all by himself and played very well. He scored his 36 points, his 26 of them in the second half. He also grabbed 6 rebounds.
The defense couldn’t do enough to back him up, as he was essentially in a one-on-one fight with Gonzaga’s Drew Timm.
Drew Timm Leads Offensive Charge, Alabama Unstoppable
How well a team plays against Tim will greatly affect how it plays against Gonzaga.
Alabama knew it was in the game. Alabama coach Nate Oates has spoken of him many times leading up to the contest.
Knowing you have to focus on Tim and actually stopping him are two different things.
Alabama had relative success against Tim in Seattle last year, but Tim had a more productive day in Birmingham. His efforts late in the first half helped Gonzaga take the lead at halftime. He had 16 points before the break.
He started to heat up again as the second half started which Gonzaga couldn’t miss. It didn’t help that Charles Vediaco scored a third foul very early in the second half, but he wasn’t quite against Tim either, but he did make a difference against the Gonzaga forward. He has won several victories.
But Tim wasn’t the only one to succeed. Gonzaga had good shooting most of the game. The Bulldogs were his 40-for-70 and he shot 57% that day.
In the second half alone, Gonzaga shot 27-20 and shot a whopping 74.1% of his field goals.
Turnovers haunt Alabama in first half
Oates had two emphasises heading into the Gonzaga match.
Better transition defense and minimized turnovers.
The latter was the big problem in the first half. In fact, they killed any momentum Alabama had.
The Crimson Tide has become stronger. By the first timeout, Alabama was leading 16–9 with him, Miller hitting his two triples, and Noah his Clowney notching his four rebounds. Meanwhile, Jaden Bradley has seven points and two assists.
By the next timeout at 11:56, Alabama had committed nine turnovers. They hurt what was otherwise a solid start. At that point, the Crimson Tide were shooting 57.1% from the field while Gonzaga was trailing within 20-16.
But the turnovers continued and the defense started to slip. For a while, Alabama was unable to keep playing basketball and the Bulldogs kept scoring.
By halftime, the Bulldogs were leading 47–42 and had 10 points off Alabama’s 14 turnovers. Gonzaga, on the other hand, only had three of him.