Tide Hoops made its triumphant return to the court Monday night, as both of Alabama’s women’s and men’s teams brought home wins to open their respective regular seasons.
Here are my takeaways from Monday’s festivities.
WBB vs. Stetson
The women’s team took care of business to start the evening with an 82-73 win over Stetson, though head coach Kristy Curry was not pleased with her team’s overall performance.
Curry’s response to being asked if she saw an improvement in team communication was a simple “no.”
“That’s something we’ll continue to work on,” she added.
Slow start and recovery
Alabama got off to a less than ideal start as it fell down 16-8 and shot just 2-8 from the field with 4:26 left in the first quarter, causing Curry to call a timeout to regroup.
The timeout appeared to work a trick as Curry’s team came out and outscored the Hatters 15-8 to close out the quarter.
Perimeter defense
The Crimson Tide’s perimeter defense throughout the game was poor. Alabama allowed the Hatters to shoot 12-23 from 3-point range, with six of those 3s falling in the first quarter.
“I thought we were not very good effort-wise in our press,” Curry said. “I kind of blame myself for pressing maybe a little too much.”
Closing out the game
Alabama seemed to get its act together on both sides of the ball late in the game as it held Stetson to just 11 fourth quarter points on 1-4 shooting from 3 and scored 20 points in the frame on 7-12 shooting from the field.
“I thought we showed some grit the last few minutes defensively,” Curry said.
Bench energy
Something that was rather noticeable came from the bench during the game. Players on the Crimson Tide’s bench had a noticeable energy throughout the contest, cheering on teammates during plays big and small.
“We have a really good group of girls that really love each other,” guard Karly Weathers said. “They stay involved and stay engaged the whole game. We can’t do what we do without them.”
MBB vs. North Dakota
The men’s team also held up its end of the bargain, dismantling North Dakota 91-62 in what was a tune-up as the 15th ranked team in the land prepares for four straight matchups against ranked opponents.
Labaron Philon is a problem
The second-year guard was already going to be called upon to be a key contributor to this team after withdrawing from the NBA Draft, but the absence of guards Aden Holloway and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. amplified the role that Philon would need to play.
He absolutely shined in his season debut, scoring 22 points on 9-13 shooting, with eight assists and three rebounds.
“I just built that level of confidence that people rarely see,” Philon said. “Every time I get the ball I just want to make the right play.”
More performances like this will easily land him in player of the year discussions.
Tempo was fast (maybe too fast)
A Nate Oats coached team is notorious for the pace it plays with. This was on full display Monday night, with his team playing like a bat out of hell for the vast majority of the contest.
At times, this looked like NBA-caliber play, at other times, Alabama just looked like it was playing out of control.
“I don’t know that anyone [in our conference] plays as fast as they do,” North Dakota head coach Paul Sather said.
Freshmen made an impact
Without Wrightsell and Holloway, freshmen guards Amari Allen and London Jemison were called upon to have a greater role in what was their first career game of college basketball.
“We were able to get those freshmen some quality minutes,” Oats said.
They both made significant contributions to the winning effort as they had 12 points each and combined for 11 rebounds. Allen also added five assists.
“There was definitely some nerves coming in, I can’t lie,” Allen said. “But all my teammates are really supportive. Older guys told me to just go in there and play hard.”
Defensive improvement
An underrated part of Monday’s game was the low amount of points Alabama let up. North Dakota’s 62 points were the least allowed by the Crimson Tide since the team’s 81-54 win over Kent State on Dec. 22, 2024.
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