Alabama traveled to North Dakota in a home game against senior Grant Nelson and got everything they had to deal with, but survived 97-90.

The first half of this game was enough to make even the most sensible Tide fans throw things at the television. I have no idea what they did offensively other than they turned the ball over 13 times and missed 13 of 18 three-point attempts in the first 20 minutes. They only managed to get to the finish line eight times in the first half against a team that lacked the necessary athletes, missing half of them.

There was no ball movement, as if every player came into the gym tonight with the primary goal of shooting one-on-one video. Mark Sears kept driving into traffic, rising into the air, and then frantically searching for a way out. Jarin Stevenson played a brutal half, with zero points at 0-3 from three shots and two turnovers. Meanwhile, the Fighting Hawks’ leading scorer, Treysen Eaglestaff, scored 14 goals to lead North Dakota to a three-point lead at halftime, 38-35.

Yes, Alabama trailed at halftime in a Quad 4 game.

The Tide played much better offensively after the break, but had absolutely no answer to Eaglestaff, who couldn’t miss. The guy scored 26 points in the second half and finished the game with a whopping 40 points – a feat he will still tell his grandchildren about. To North Dakota’s credit, it turned out the lights, but the game was only close because Alabama turned the ball over at a concerning length and watched as several long rebounds ended up in the hands of the Fighting Hawks. The defensive performance was rather pitiful.

This game was a lesson in not allowing losing teams to hang around, especially away from home. North Dakota embarrassed Alabama anyway, but a loss would have been downright humiliating. They escaped with a win and Nelson had a nice game in his home state with 21 points and 10 rebounds, but Nate Oats will have plenty to offer them at practice. Simply put, the team we saw tonight would be very lucky to hit .500 in an SEC that appears to be perhaps the strongest conference in college basketball history.

Hopefully they can put this behind them and figure some things out.

Roll Tide.