It was a big day for senior Aaron Estrada and an even bigger day for Alabama basketball.

Taking on the Mississippi State Bulldogs at home, the No. 24 ranked Crimson Tide put on an offensive and defensive clinic Saturday night as head coach Nate Oats’ squad cruised to a 99-67 blowout on Estrada’s twenty-third birthday.

“We’ve been asking our guys to come out and try to put 40 minutes on both sides of the ball together,” Oats said. “That’s been the closest we’ve come.”

The Hofstra transfer was the second-leading scorer for Alabama as he finished with 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds as well. The 6-foot-3 guard has become a consistent double-double threat with his scoring and rebounding ability, and his performance against the Bulldogs was no shortage of that.

“Triple-double birthday is what we were trying to preach to him,” Oats said. “We didn’t make enough shots for him to get enough assists. You know, he had 15 [points], 8 [rebounds], and 3 [assists], I think that’s more than a solid game on his birthday.”

With Oats starting to run a small-ball lineup with four guards, Estrada has a bigger responsibility of crashing the boards and battling inside for position. However, he’s done that all season long, even before the change to the starting five.

Estrada is the second-oldest player on the roster with a bunch of young freshmen on the squad who take heed to his leadership by example, especially on the boards.

“It feels good having a guard like Aaron,” said freshman Mo Dioubate. “It makes it easy for us with him rebounding and playing defense well. I just love having him as a teammate.”

As for the birthday festivities, the freshmen on the squad had their own special gift for Estrada during Friday’s practice.

“We sang happy birthday at practice, the freshmen,” Stevenson said. “It may not have been the best singing though.”

Oats couldn’t help but second that.

“It was really bad, they’re not very good singers. It sounded about like me if I had to sing it.”

With the victory over the Bulldogs, the Crimson Tide have won four straight and will roll into Auburn on Feb. 7 to take on the No. 16 ranked Tigers in Neville Arena at 6 p.m. CT.