Alabama’s mens’ basketball team is heading north for tomorrow’s game against North Dakota. This game plus matches against Kent State and South Dakota State represent the last chance the Crimson Tide have to tune up their game before facing play in the Southeastern Conference. Star Guard Mark Sears scored twenty seven points against Creighton over the weekend. But Coach Nate Oates says the team is shooting poorly and needs to step up…
“We got three more games, and they're not easy,” said Oats. “A road game at North Dakota. It's not going to be an easy game, you know. And Kent State and South Dakota State are both really good mid major programs. You know, Kent State's one of the best programs in the Mac where I came from. They'll be ready to go. They’re physical.”
The Fightin' Hawks have gone two wins and one loss at home. North Dakota is ninth in the Summit League with 10.4 assists per game led by Treysen Eaglestaff averaging 2.2. The Crimson Tide have gone 1-1 away from home. Alabama averages almost twelve turnovers per game and is 2-0 when winning the turnover battle.
North Dakota averages 71.6 points per game, 6.2 fewer points than the 77.8 Alabama allows. Alabama has shot at a 46.8% rate from the field this season, 0.6 percentage points below the 47.4% shooting opponents of North Dakota have averaged. Tide coach Oats says overall the Tide needs to improve…
“To be six in the country with as poor as we're shooting,” he said. “It right now is a tribute to the type of shots and some other stuff we're doing, but we gotta start to make some shots here. So hopefully these next three games will help us get there."
The Tide will begin playing its SEC rivals starting with Oklahoma on January fourth. Alabama is working to repeat last year’s showing in the sweet sixteen and the elite eight, and the team's first ever appearance in the final four.
