TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama basketball was back at home for the first time in over a month Saturday. Sporting new throwback uniforms, the Crimson Tide, didn’t disappoint in its long-awaited return to Coleman Coliseum with a strong performance in its 83-75 win over Creighton.

The Tide entered Saturday looking to avenge a three-point loss to Creighton last season in Omaha, Nebraska. The Tide weathered some shooting skids with discipline in the turnover and rebounding departments. Alabama was also able to show off its depth with one of its top transfers making his debut and another playing his second game of the season.

Even as Creighton scratched and clawed its way back into the game, Alabama stayed locked in defensively, making the Jays earn every bucket they got and forcing some critical turnovers to keep the game out of reach for the visitors.

Here are three takeaways from Alabama’s win over Creighton.

Alabama didn’t look like a team that lost one of its most important guards just a few weeks ago. Instead, the Tide showed off the depth that makes it one of the hardest teams in the country to run with.

Tide coach Nate Oats played all of Alabama's active players in the first eight minutes against Creighton. He was unafraid to be fluid in his rotations and the level rarely dropped off no matter who was in the game. Only two Alabama players played under 10 minutes, which helped Oats keep the Tide's rotations fresh as it weathered its late-first-half shooting slump and fended off a late comeback effort from Creighton.

Wrightsell’s absence will continue to sting for Alabama, but Saturday was an opportunity to ramp up the involvement of one of his key replacements. South Florida transfer guard Chris Youngblood also got his first opportunity of the season after battling back from an ankle injury.

Youngblood finished with five points, one rebound, one assist and a pair of steals. Two of his points came on a layup with just under 11 minutes remaining which ended a shooting slump for the Tide that also included three quick turnovers.

Oats has maintained that the Youngblood who debuted Saturday won’t be the same Youngblood by the time SEC play rolls around and beyond. The fifth-year guard has only become a more vital component for Alabama with Wrightsell’s injury and Youngblood’s positive debut is a good sign he’ll be able to live up to those expectations.

"It’s good to see him hit the one three," Oats said after the game. "I think he’ll shoot it a little bit better than he did tonight once he kind of gets in flow and rhythm a little bit more. But good to see him out there contributing to the win tonight.”

Alabama seemed to be cruising for much of the first half. The Tide had easy access to the lane offensively and scored 20 of its 31 first-half points in the paint and A well-executed defensive gameplan limited Creighton’s counterpunches.

Alabama’s comfortable advantage early was wiped away, however when made just one of its final 13 shot attempts. Creighton naturally generated some offense and cut Alabama’s lead to six by the halftime buzzer.

That kind of drought can completely flip a game’s momentum. But Alabama was able to keep Creighton at arm’s length and weather the cold spell thanks to discipline on the glass when its shot wasn’t falling. Alabama out-rebounded Creighton 45-34 and grabbed 17 offensive rebounds compared to just five for the Bluejays.

Mark Sears buried a 3 to start the second half which made it a nine-point game and Alabama never looked back. Sears led Alabama with 27 points and his backcourt running mate Labaron Philon nearly matched his output with 16.

Even when Alabama wasn’t hitting 3s, it continued to get easy paint touches against Creighton’s drop coverage. The Bluejays' bigs would sink toward the rim to cut off the pass to the roll man. That allowed Sears, Philon and the rest of Alabama’s guards to take advantage of floaters which they were happy to take and make.

“We just wanted to be aggressive coming out the ball screen," Sears said. "We noticed that he wasn’t really stepping up to the guards so we had a wide-open floater shot and the guards did a great job of finding that during the game.”

The Tide finished with 44 points in the paint. Sears drilled a pair of late free throws to help seal the Tide's win after Crighton made a late push and cap off his best performance of the season.

Alabama was slightly better in the turnover department Saturday than it has been through its gauntlet non-conference. The Tide came into the game averaging 12.9 giveaways per game and finished with 11 against the Jays.

More crucial to the Tide’s win however was its ability to force takeaways on the defensive end. Alabama was able to win the turnover battle, forcing the Creighton to cough up the ball 12 times, each one feeling more critical than the last as Alabama turned the takeaways into 14 points offensively.

Even when its shooting took a dip, Alabama’s defensive effort never wavered. The Tide’s guards hounded Creighton’s and the forwards made life similarly difficult for the Jays star big man Ryan Kalkbrenner. The fifth-year center finished with 18 points and seven rebounds, but Alabama did a good enough job preventing easy looks on deep catches and letting Kalkbrenner truly establish dominance on the block.

Alabama also stayed out of foul trouble when defending against Kalkbrenner down low. The Tide's centers combined for 10 fouls in 31 minutes against Creighton last season. This time around, Alabama's bigs walled up in the paint without fouling. No player had more than three Saturday.

Coming into the game, Oats stressed that the key to defending Kalkbrenner would be its ability to double and front the post and still defend a Creighton team that has burned its opponents by getting hot from 3. That shooting stroke never came for Creighton Saturday, as Alabama controlled the tempo defensively, flying around to contest shots and holding Creighton to a lowly 29.6% from 3 and 1.02 points per possession.

After playing its first home game inside Coleman Coliseum for the first time in over a month, Alabama will head straight back on the road for a unique matchup away from home against North Dakota. The Tide and Fighting Hawks will faceoff at 8 p.m. CT Wednesday inside the Betty Engelstad Sioux Center. The game will be broadcast on CBS Sports Network.