TIDE BASKETBALL: The joy of winning not just from making 3s
Alabama knocked down 16 3-pointers in the win over Maryland on Monday but it’s the team attitude that has lifted the Crimson Tide into the Sweet 16. (Courtesy Alabama Media Relations)
By GRAHAM DUNN
Smiles were a big part of Alabama’s NCAA Tournament second-round win over Maryland on Monday.
A 96-77 victory will make that happen. Ditto a trip to the Sweet 16.
The unleashing of the once-cold-shooting John Petty, Jr. and Jaden Shackelford contributed to the happiness, with 20 and 21 points respectively.
The Alabama offense enjoyed its best shooting performance from the 3-point arc in the school’s tourney history, hitting 16 at a 48.5 percent clip.
The Tide broke the overall season 3-point shooting mark with 341 so far. That is better than last season’s 334 made a year ago.
Other than a few flashes during February and in the SEC Tournament, long-range shooting success has been missing.
The rising Tide may have found it again at the right time.
But the joy of winning may have more to do with attitude than altitude.
How far this Alabama team goes will depend more on the continuation of the excitement found every time Nate Oats and his team take the court.
Every weekend is a mini soap opera in the NCAA Tourney. Many teams have looked and played like Tarzan in the first two games only to fall apart a week later and look like Jane.
Bama has a history of that. See the stretch in the 1980s and 90s under Wimp Sanderson when Bama would look like a national title contender in the second round only to fail a few days later in the Sweet 16.
Is this team different? Maybe, but that scowl made famous by Sanderson has been replaced by smiles and happy dancing on the sideline from both players and coaches.
That might sound irrelevant but don’t underestimate the power of positive thinking.
It has shown up in every Tide win and that has keyed another winning streak that has reached eight games.
Need proof? Monday’s win over Maryland was triggered by a 19-4 run in the first half that helped Bama build a double-digit lead. The key was not how it happened but “who.”
Petty, who has been struggling offensively for most of the second half of the season, was right in the middle of the charge, knocking down two key 3s in the stretch.
Everybody in a white jersey fed off Petty’s success. Alabama has won without his consistency, and no, it’s not about one player. But it is about everybody wanting their star senior to succeed, if only for his own mind adjustment.
“I’ve been talking to him,” Oats said. “He’s been about the right stuff. He’s put a lot of pressure on himself and he needed a shot to go through, a couple to go back-to-back.
“I was so happy for him. He’s been playing super hard. He’s making shots now so it’s good to have the old John Petty back.”
Another example - Oats explained why backup forward Juwan Gary was inserted into the starting lineup ahead of the normal starter Jordan Bruner. It was Gary’s first start of the year, coming in the 32nd game.
“A couple of these guys didn’t play as many minutes as they usually play,” Oats said. “(Alex) Reese didn’t get as many minutes as he wanted in games during the season but kept is attitude great all year and look at what he’s doing with the season on the line.
“(Bruner) sat in my room before the game and told me, ‘I’m a basketball mind, I think it’s better (to start Gary),’ and we talked about matchups. It was hard to give him those minutes because of matchups. Bruner is a team guy, he’s all about whatever it takes for the team to win. We built this team on getting stops and guarding.”
The word “intangibles” is used a lot this time of year. Unlike the stats Oats likes to quote on a daily basis, you can’t measure the attitude of a team with numbers.
Getting benched this late in the season is not easy for a senior to take.
Yet, Bruner and this team seem to get it. The unselfishness is well documented on the court (Bama had 19 assists Monday) but it starts in the locker room where it can’t be measured with a slide rule.
After the Tide won the SEC Championship last weekend, league officials said no team had spent as much time on the court celebrating as Alabama did. They almost refused to leave and had to be asked to head to the locker room so the confetti on at the Bridgestone Arena court could be removed.
That may sound petty (no pun intended) but Petty was just as excited after making a couple of 3s against Maryland. So were his teammates in honor of him.
Oats, the Math teacher, can take a statistic and prove why his team played the way it did. But Oats, the Chemistry teacher, may have more to do with whether or not Alabama cuts down the ultimate nets for a national title.
So far, his mixture of intensity, fun and fast-paced basketball is working like a charm.