Crimson Red Sports

Friday night's contest will be available on SEC Network+ via WatchESPN.com and the WatchESPN app. The game can also be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, with Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) calling all the action. There will be live updates throughout the game available on Twitter @AlabamaMBB.

http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/010115aac.html

I hate these games you have to watch on the computer.

North Florida is 5-8 with an RPI of 177. They have beaten Purdue so they are not a push over.

Bama needs to win this home game to finish the non-conference part of the schedule at 10-3. We have an RPI of 36 with a win tonight we should begin SEC play with a little momentum.

Purdue has an RPI of 115. They have beaten NC State, Minnesota, & Missouri.


 :wave:

North Florida 13  Tide 11  Kessens has 6 points.

NF 18  Tide 11

We have to play better than this. UNF looks much better than us in all phases of the game so far. UNF leads 21-15.

UNF leads 25-23 at the under 8 minute break.

7:58 left in 1st half. Unforced TO on Tarrant. 28-23 UNF is hitting from outside.

Tide showing more energy & makes a run. 32-30 Tide




 :clap:

Nice 9-0 run by the Tide.

Tie game 32-32. Bama getting in foul trouble. Several Bama players with 2 fouls. Taylor has to take a seat.

UNF 35 Tide 32  Tide has 9 turnovers, UNF 4.

Tide finishing the 1st half strong. Bama up by 8. Kessens has 16.

Tide 45-37 Half  Tide kicked it into high gear.



 #+

High scoring 1st half. Bama finished strong to take the 8 point halftime lead. We need more of that in the 2nd half.

Wouldn't it be fantastic if a Bama big man could contribute under the basket on a regular basis.



 :clap:

Bama up by 20 70-50 with 8 minutes to go.

Bama up 74-54 with a little over 4:00 to play.

Bama wins 76-61. This game was never in doubt in the 2nd half. We go to SEC play with a 4 game winning streak.

THE GOOD

FG%   52.8%
ASST  18
STL     9
Kessens 18 pts, 12 reb.
Norris  10 pts, 4 reb.

THE BAD

Taylor  Early foul trouble, 15 minutes played with 2 pts. & 2 reg.
Hale  11 minutes played, 3 fouls, 3 turnovers, 5 points

AND THE UGLY

Coleman  26 minutes played, 1-6 FG, 0-4 3 pointers, 2 total points
 




(http://imagecache5d.art.com/Crop/cropwm.jpg?img=-40-4023-66TWF00Z&x=0&y=0&w=1000&h=1000&size=2&maxw=1325&maxh=771&q=100)

It was a fun night in Coleman tonight and the basketball game was a good dose of medicine to help me get over the Sugar Bowl hangover from last night. The name North Florida doesn't ring a bell with most basketball fans around here but any more you can't go by the team's name because some of these no name schools have pretty good basketball teams. North Florida isn't a Kentucky by no means but they do have a decent team with a win over Purdue at Purdue last month. They slowed the game down the first half and gave Bama all they wanted but the second half was a totally different story.

Bama gets another win and it served some good purposes as Bama prepped for their conference season opener against Texas A&M January 6th. After the sluggish first half, Bama picked up the tempo of the game and that was all that they needed. It's a fact that Bama is a much better team when the tempo is fast paced and the stats and score reflected this. Kessens is getting better with each game as he had another star of the game performance tonight with his second double-double of the season, 18 points and 12 rebounds. Bama had 3 other players to hit double figures in scoring, Randolph had 13, Cooper 11, and Norris had 10. If there is one thing that Kessens needs to work on, it is his getting too many silly unnecessary fouls. This is costing him some valuable minutes of playing time.

I can see Bama doing more and more toward becoming a pretty good team since the season started and it's important that they carry this momentum into the conference season and win some games early. They are not a good team yet but they are working and playing hard to get there and that is all you can ask of them. When the season started, Levi Randolph was was clearly the leader of this team but now there seems to be more of the players trying to step into that leadership role which shows me that the team is maturing and that can only make CAG smile.

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2015/01/strong_second_half_fuels_alaba.html#incart_river

Excellent post, Jamos.  Thanks.   :worship: :worship:

Nice report Jamos.

The crowd looked very small on TV. It was list as 8,800 but looked to be less than 5,000 to me. I hope we can get good home crowds and create a real home court advantage for SEC games. We have some good Saturday games this year which should help.

We took control of the game in the closing minutes of the first half. After trailing for most of the half we went on a 9-0 run to take the lead by 8 at the half and never let UNF back in the game.

Coleman played 26 minutes with very little production other than 5 assists. Tarrant only played 18 minutes. He had 7 points and 6 assists and only one foul. I don't know if CAG was resting Tarrant or if he was just trying to get Coleman some playing time.

Kessens and Norris are getting better each game. I think we will be ready for SEC play. This is the first team in many years that will make the other team guard all five players on the floor and that opens up the court for better shots and driving lanes.

Our RPI is 39 after the 9-3 non-conference season. We had good wins over Arizona St and UCLA. We had tough losses to Iowa St, Xavier and Wichita St. All good top 50 RPI teams. We did not have any bad losses which I think is very important. IMO we have set ourselves up for a NCAA bid if we have a good SEC season.

It's good to see Kessens get going. Taylor can be good at times, but like Kessens, needs to eliminate the silly fouls. It's been a very long time since we've had production from a big man, and we're starting to get it this year.

So Carolina just beat No. 9 Iowa St. 64 - 60. Good win for the SEC.

ISU has an excellent team & we have already played them. Good win for the SEC like you said. The bad news, we have to play S. Carolina.


 :unsure:

We just need to beat USCe. No problem.

You know guys I don't get to see them as much as I would want to but in you all opinions do you think we will be competitive through the SEC this year? RTR!

There looked to be about 3000-4000 at the game

I think Tarrant is a little dinged up from the UCLA game. He came up a little gimpy after a drive to the basket and he was fouled pretty hard. He was favoring his left leg.

Norris isn't playing like a freshman, I think he is one of the smarter players on the team. He is very aggressive under the basket, I wish he was about 2 inches taller. I compare his style of play to Randolph and I think he will have a great career at Bama.

Coleman didn't have a good game. He is very quick but he is short and the North Florida players could match his speed. They had some height on him as well so that made it harder for him to make his passes or to make a shot.

I think the SEC is better than they have been in recent years but I also think we are better. I think we will have a winning record in league play. How good we are will depend on how many road games we can win.