BamaCentral Courtside: Tennessee 81, Alabama 74
Final thoughts and takeaways from inside Coleman Coliseum after No. 4 Tennessee took control of the SEC with a win over No. 14 Alabama.
Transcript
00:00 Welcome into Bama Central courtside alongside Joe Gaither and Blake Beiler.
00:03 I'm Katie Windham here after Tennessee's 81-74 win over the Crimson Tide,
00:08 taking sole possession of first placement in the SEC, knocking Alabama not
00:12 technically officially out, but they're no longer in control of their own
00:15 destiny. Blake, what was the biggest issue for the Crimson Tide tonight? I mean, I
00:21 think it boils down to the way the offense just kind of stopped producing
00:25 in the second half. Alabama took a seven-point lead in the second half. I
00:29 think it was 58-51, and then there was a 10-minute stretch where Alabama only
00:34 made one field goal. They made two of their last 13 from the floor, and I think
00:39 that was kind of a product of first, it was a bunch of misses, and Alabama was
00:43 getting decent looks, and they just wouldn't knock them down, and I think
00:46 that led to some kind of rushing, over-analyzing of their offensive game,
00:50 which led to rushed shots, bad decisions, and then ultimately turnovers down the
00:56 stretch. Just poor basketball IQ plays that were able to give Tennessee the
01:01 ball back. Eventually, Alabama's defense faltered a little bit. Tennessee started
01:05 hitting shots, shots that were tough looks by Dalton Connect and other guys
01:11 like that, that they were eventually going to make. Alabama's defense played
01:14 really well for a lot of the game, and they were able to keep them in it for a
01:17 lot of the time, but Alabama just wasn't able to hit shots down the stretch, and
01:21 that's not something you would expect to be the problem with this team. They've
01:25 been the number one offensive team in the country. They're still number one in
01:28 offensive efficiency, even after that game, but just down the stretch, the shots
01:32 wouldn't go in, and that kind of is what it boils down to. Yeah, I mean really in
01:37 Alabama's losses this year, most of the time it has been the defense, and the
01:41 offense has always been good, and I think like you said, part of it's what Alabama
01:45 did, but Nate Oates was also very complimentary of Tennessee, and Rick
01:48 Barnes' defense is always good, and they were again tonight. Now Joe, the SEC
01:53 regular season is likely out of the picture for Alabama, but do you think this is
01:57 something that Alabama can rebound from? Not that it was a terrible performance,
02:01 they did some really good things on defense, but how do you think this team
02:04 responds to what happened here tonight? Well, I really am curious to see how
02:07 Latrell Wrightsville gets re-plugged back into the lineup. You've been sitting here
02:10 waiting on him for the last handful of games, and you thought he was gonna be
02:13 able to be able to be available tonight against Tennessee, but he hasn't been, so
02:17 you've relied a lot on Sam Walters, and Jaren Stephenson, and Davin Cosby, a lot
02:21 of the inexperience on this roster, you re-plugged Latrell Wrightsville. Does the
02:25 experience you've gained over the last two weeks really pay off and turn it
02:29 play? And I think it could. I think that's a great point that Alabama has been
02:33 missing Latrell Wrightsville these last couple weeks, that when tonight they
02:35 needed a basket, when they needed to stop on defense, those are two things he's
02:38 pretty good at, making threes, and he's one of Alabama's best defending
02:42 guards, and so certainly Alabama could have used him tonight, especially in that
02:45 second half kind of offensive drought, but Alabama doesn't come away their home
02:48 and winning streak gets snapped. They still have two games left at
02:54 Florida on Tuesday, and then they will wrap up the regular season here against
02:57 Arkansas a week from today, but with a lot earlier tip-off time, but that'll
03:01 wrap up today's long day at Coleman Coliseum alongside Joe and Blake. Blake,
03:04 I'm Katie, thanks so much for watching.