TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — UNC Asheville didn’t stand a chance, and Arkansas State didn’t have enough firepower to take advantage of an off night from Alabama basketball. Monday night was more of the same, as the No. 2 Crimson Tide survived a second-half cold spell to outlast an overmatched McNeese State team, 72-64.
Boasting arguably the nation’s deepest roster, Alabama was expected to roll to a 3-0 start to the season. The opening part of the Tide’s non-conference slate was more of a tune-up than a test.
That won’t be the case Friday when Alabama (3-0) travels to West Lafayette, Indiana to take on No. 13 Purdue (3-0). Even without two-time Naismith College Player of the Year Award winner Zach Edey, the Boilermakers look like a team that should contend to make a repeat trip to the Final Four. And Purdue will be just the start of a gauntlet of games for Alabama over the next month.
Following Friday’s matchup the Tide will take on Illinois in Birmingham on Nov. 20 before flying to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival where it will start off against No. 8 Houston before facing No. 24 Rutgers and one of No. 12 Texas A&M, No. 15 Creighton and San Diego State or Oregon.
Next up from there will be a trip to No. 10 North Carolina on Dec. 4 followed by a home matchup against Creighton on Dec. 10. All and all, that could amount to six ranked matchups in seven games for Alabama.
So is Nate Oats’ bunch up for the test? The head coach has liked what he’s seen at times, but he’s still searching for more consistency.
“Our upside’s high like I think we all knew,” Oats said. “We also learned that if we don’t play with a competitive edge we’re not all that special. We’ve got to have a competitive edge, the ball’s got to move. We’ve got to play the way need to play, and we’ll be good.”
Arkansas State and McNeese State might not have been able to pull upsets over Alabama, but the pair of mid-major powers did expose a few of the Tide’s warts.
Arkansas State was tied with Alabama with seven minutes remaining, while McNeese State hovered within two possessions with 4:21 to play. Following Monday night’s victory, Oats listed a few of the flaws his team will be focusing on moving forward.
“Our defensive rebounding’s a problem,” Oat said. “Our turnovers are a major problem. We had 15 of them tonight, so that’s an issue. Attacking switching defenses, I thought we’d do a lot better at it, and we didn’t. We got to go through that. Letting the press slow us down was a problem. They exposed us on multiple levels that we can now work on before league play.”
Oats’ philosophy has always been to challenge his team as much as he can before entering the conference schedule. The upcoming slate of games will certainly do that, exposing even more areas that need tinkering.
“From every game, we learn something about ourselves,” graduate guard Mark Sears said. “It’s good to learn something about ourselves when we’re winning so we can apply it to the next game. I feel like we’re going to attack this film coming up next and just apply it until we go into this gauntlet.”
Alabama and Purdue will tip off at 6 p.m. CT inside Mackey Arena on Friday. The two teams faced off last year in Toronto, as Purdue came away with a 92-86 victory. Alabama and Purdue are both coming off Final Four runs and are projected to win their respective conferences this season.
“This is why we play these games,” Oats said about the challenge of traveling to Purdue. “This is why the guys work. This is how we like to do it. We like to play some of the best teams in the country as evidenced by the next seven games here with who we’re playing. I want to see where we stand against the best in the country, and this will be a good test for us on Friday.”
