Film study: How Alabama basketball's defense pushed it to Sweet 16

Alabama's gritty win over Grand Canyon was one for the history books. The Crimson Tide delivered its best defensive performance in months and secured consecutive Sweet 16 births for the first time in over two decades.

Let’s analyze the film to see how No. 4 seed Alabama, the nation's No. 1 offense, overcame its offensive struggles to set up a showdown with No. 1 seed North Carolina on Thursday.

Though Grand Canyon is statistically the better defensive unit, Alabama set the tone with its energy and physicality on the Antelopes’ star Tyon Grant-Foster.

Alabama threw various defenders at Grant-Foster early, keeping him scoreless on 0 of 5 shooting from the field through the first six minutes of action.

Grant-Foster scored 29 points on 9 of 17 shooting from the field over the last 34 minutes; however, the Crimson Tide held the rest of Grand Canyon’s team to 32 points on 26.5% shooting from the field (9 of 34).

“We’ve been using the word ‘next’ a lot lately,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said following the game. “Next play, just go to the next play. Forget about the call that didn’t go your way, forget about the turnover, forget about the offensive possession where you missed or your teammate missed. It doesn’t matter; just play hard on defense. This is one of our best defensive games of the year.”

Alabama committed 26 fouls, it's second-highest total of the season. However, that's something Oats can live with, given his team's activity level, aggressive point-of-attack defense and sound rotations.

As seen in this compilation, Alabama’s communications on help rotations were on point, whether it was doubling the post, helping over from the weak side to contest a rim attempt, or being in the right place at the right time to force a turnover.

A lot needs to be said about Nick Pringle’s rim protection. The two blocks are nice, but only three fouls in 25 minutes of action will be crucial for the Crimson Tide’s chances of containing North Carolina’s Armando Bacot in the Sweet 16.

According to Sports Reference, Alabama recorded a season-high nine blocks, along with 10 steals for the first time since Feb. 3. The Crimson Tide is also 15-0 when it holds its opponent to 80 points or less.

Once again, Mouhamed Doubate’s defense was downright incredible, so his recent showing warrants an entire section.

After playing only three minutes in Alabama’s 102-88 loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, Dioubate has logged at least 10 minutes in back-to-back games for the first time since November. Even then, those minutes came in blowout wins over Mercer and Arkansas State.

That wasn’t the case for Dioubate in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament. He was on the court in crunch time.

With 6:20 left in the game, Dioubate had this filthy recovery block to keep Grand Canyon from extending their lead to three.

It wasn’t just his defense. A minute later, Dioubate was in position for the offensive rebound on Mark Sears’ missed free throw and finished through contact to put the Crimson Tide ahead.

Here, Diobuate set a drag screen for Sears into a fake dribble handoff with Pringe as the ball-handler. That flowed into another screen with Dioubate as the ball-handler and Pringe as the screener. Dioubate drove off the screen and utilized a jump stop to split through the crowded paint for a finish.

On this possession, Pringle found Dioubate on a timely cut from the deep weak-side corner. He then used a hop step to evade the defender and finished with a short left-handed. floater

Dioubate’s combination of defense, offensive rebounding, and play finishing has proven to be way too valuable for Oats to keep off the court despite his limitations as a shooter – 9.1% from beyond the arc this season.

"He just made some stuff happen,” Oats said. “I’m super happy for him. I mean, he literally has the greatest attitude [...] He’s just been an unbelievable kid all year. So super happy he came in and won this game for us.”

Dioubate scored 9 points, five offensive rebounds, and two blocks on 3 of 6 shooting in 13 minutes of action.

Alabama will travel to Los Angeles to face North Carolina on Thursday in the Sweet 16. The Tar Heels picked up wins over Wagner and Michigan State in the first two rounds. The game will tip off following the conclusion of the Clemson-Arizona game, which tips off at 6:09 p.m. CT. The game will air on CBS.