I won’t even recap the season so far other than to say that Alabama has played 11 games and only at times looked like they were serious… serious about defense, serious about every possession, serious competitors.

Aside from some offensive bursts in bigger games, good perimeter defense against Illinois, and half-great defense against Houston, the only thing this team is serious about is a serious clown show. And as expected, it is the product of effort and attention.

“In practice I thought we were a lot better on defense,” Oats said. “But can you do that every day, even if you haven’t given up 40 points to a particular scorer? We’re going to challenge our guys defensively until we understand the defense. We need everyone to be willing to get involved and that has been the theme here over the last few days.”

Nate Oats is fed up. We’re tired of it. The half dozen players on this team who are trying are fed up. And you notice that. The Tide even have to return to summer development camp. Honestly, it shouldn’t be that bad after Oats specifically hired a defensive specialist this year… but it’s somehow worse, as the Tide are allowing a putrid 99.6 points per 100 possessions.

But it must end, and it must end Today. Otherwise it’s just an empty threat:

It shouldn’t have taken a dozen games to see who was preternaturally lazy. We knew that after two games… and after half a dozen… and after two months. It’s almost always the same perpetrators. And we knew after just a few competitions that Jarin didn’t need to be in the starting lineup, period.

Rotation shouldn’t actually be in question at this point. There is a core group of three people that far outstrips everyone else: Grant, Sears, Labaron – that’s 60% of your starting group. Cliff’s offense is limited, but he was great defensively off the ball in a way that doesn’t always translate into the box score. There is your center. Meanwhile, Holloway and Reid Mallette were the best two-way players in the 4-7 lineup. And you’re training Youngblood to prepare for the season… if that’s even what he wants to be.

For everyone else it goes from practice to practice, from possession to possession, from game to game. And if they don’t want to play hard and play smart, then they don’t play. And if that core group wants to laze around, bench them too – you’ll find someone who wants to play, even if you pull the Rec League Champ from the Crimson Chaos student section. Just like. Alabama only has three more allegedly Tweaks to clear this up before the SEC schedule begins with a top-15 road game in Norman.

And today’s opponent is no gimmick either, not given the way these lazy, aimless, apathetic, lifeless, loitering, entitled head cases are squandering their talent… in what should be a magical time.

It’s time to turn things around, folks. Because this Kent State team may hit you.

---

Tale of the Tape: Kent State (No. 118, 8-2) vs. Alabama (No. 7, 9-2)

Spread (Total): Alabama -20.5 (O/U 154.5)

Opponent KenPom: 118 (216 Attack, 64 Defense, 22 Speed)
Opponent Evan Miya: 113 (154 Attack, 96 Defense, 20 Speed)
Opponent Bart Torvik: 112 (240 Attack, 331 Defense, 187 Speed)
Opponent NET: 102 (Q3)
Opponent’s best win: N/A
Opponent’s worst loss: 92 (UC Irvine)

Alabama KenPom: 8 (6 out, 51 defense, 10 pace)
Evan Miya: 7 (4 out, 28 defense, 2nd pace)
Bart Torvik: 8 (5 out, 46 defense, 4th pace)
NET ranking: 12 (5-2 Q1/2)
Best win: No. 4 (N) Houston
Worst loss: No. 26 at Purdue

In a perfect world, Alabama would be in many ways what Kent State is: defensive specialists who move quickly. The Tide has played against fast teams this season: Illinois, UNC, Rutgers, but this is the first to combine that speed with very good scoring defense. It’s not always obvious analytically, but the Golden Flashes do a great job keeping their opponents off the scoreboard. Offensively, they rarely get above the upper 60s/low 70s, so you have to hit 70 to beat the team. The problem is that even the best offense in the country (No. 1 Auburn) only scored 76 points against Kent State. KSU ranks 12th nationally in scoring defense and allows just 19 made baskets per game.

What’s baffling is that Kent State just shouldn’t be this good, not on paper. With an average height of 1.80 m per man, they are one of the smallest teams in the country. They regularly get killed on the defensive target (in T1-T3 games their average is -9). They are terrible scorers: 326th in the nation. They only shoot 45% from the ground. They are under 30% from three-point range. And they are in the bottom 20 in effective field goal shooting (345).

But Kent State is a very aggressive offensive rebounder, they don’t play a lot, they force some TOs on the defense and they play at lightning speed.

If a swarm of hornets were a basketball team, this would be it. And like a swarm of hornets, they can kill you with a thousand stings, even if one of them gets a knockout blow.

If there is one “star” of this ultimate blue-collar team, it is VonCameron Davis, and he is certainly the most consistent. The Flash’s swing man has hit double figures in all but one game this season (and he was caught in that one), routinely flirts with 18-20 a night and has a 15 average overall.

But unlike other teams we’ve seen this year, everyone is contributing to Kent’s success.

Your leading rebounder? Middle Cli’ron Hornbeak. Best defender? Off-ball G Marquis Bennett. Best ball distributor? PG Cian Medley in broad strokes, but his replacement Jamal Sumlin is even better at distributing them per 40. Best rim defender? Hornbeak thrives on volume alone, but both power forwards (Magnus and Gillespie) are more impactful per possession. Best perimeter defender? Jalen Sullinger. The three-guard, Morgan Safford? Best three-point shooter…and two other rotation players are every bit his equal in terms of overall accuracy to stand out on a team of poor shooters.

See what I mean? This is exactly the kind of team that has traditionally fueled Nate Oats teams – and the kind of team he desperately wants Alabama to become – unselfish, with full buy-in on the bench, fast, aggressive and playing hard on every possession .

There’s a blue-collar team on the field today, and after a dozen games you can’t say it’s Alabama. If the Tide have another cold ball night and don’t play smart, they can certainly lose an ugly, low-scoring play to a smarter team that will fight and protect the ball better.

---

Conclusion

If this is truly a return to basics, the Tide can prove it by matching Kent State with defensive intensity. The horrible display of inattentive, demanding, selfish sloppiness we saw on Wednesday cannot happen again, whether against Kent State or Kentucky. This is a poor shooting team against which Alabama has an average height advantage of five inches. This game shouldn’t be tight in terms of rebounding, shooting and certainly not the score.

Anything but a comfortable The double-digit win, in which Alabama doesn’t try to stem the tide for 40 minutes, is a failure.

Period.

Here’s how to watch

Noon Central on the SEC Network

forecast

I just don’t believe in this group long-term, and certainly not enough to cover a -20.5 point spread. I guess with all this talk of “back to the OG” you can’t expect a tiger to change his stripes. The Tide will shoot poorly from distance, they will get outrun far too often, they will make some inexplicable defensive mistakes, they will commit too many stupid turnovers but force few turnovers of their own. And in the end they simply outperform the opponent who plays harder. We have already seen it 6-7 times this year. No reason to believe that will change today. I think you need three or four straight losses to open SEC play before it really sinks in.

If yes.

Alabama 75
Kent State 64

Hope for the best.
Roll Tide.