Alabama Hosts Arkansas (8:00 ESPN2)

[pmull]

The Alabama men's basketball team will welcome the Arkansas Razorbacks on Thursday night at Coleman Coliseum. The contest is set to tipoff at 8 p.m. CT and will be televised on ESPN2.

"We're looking forward to the game tomorrow," UA head coach Anthony Grant said. "Having had a chance to watch Arkansas on film, I'm really impressed. You look at the numbers, and what jumps out at you defensively is forcing 20 turnovers, getting 10 steals a game. The pace of the game obviously, style of play is going to be critical. We're going to have to do a great job of taking care of the basketball."

The Crimson Tide (12-7, 4-2 SEC) snapped its four-game winning streak last Saturday, falling at Tennessee, 54-53. UA was led on the day by junior guard Trevor Releford who had a game-high 18 points and five steals on the day. Sophomore guards Trevor Lacey (11 points) and Rodney Cooper (10 points) also reached double figures.

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[pmull]

This is a big game for us tonight. We are 4-2 in SEC play. We trail only Florida 7-0 and Ole Miss 6-1. A win will put us at 5-2 and start to separate us from the middle of the pack. We are a bubble NCAA tournament team right now. We needs wins and can not afford to drop a home game.

We are playing better. Arkansas will present some problems but I think we will win this game. We need to get good games out of Jacobs and Gueye. I keep waiting for Pollard to have a break out game. Maybe it will be tonight.

I hope we have another big crowd tonight.

[Jamos]

This is a big game for us tonight. We are 4-2 in SEC play. We trail only Florida 7-0 and Ole Miss 6-1. A win will put us at 5-2 and start to separate us from the middle of the pack. We are a bubble NCAA tournament team right now. We needs wins and can not afford to drop a home game.

We are playing better. Arkansas will present some problems but I think we will win this game. We need to get good games out of Jacobs and Gueye. I keep waiting for Pollard to have a break out game. Maybe it will be tonight.

I hope we have another big crowd tonight.

I keep waiting for Pollard to get more aggresive around the basket on missed shots, his leaping ability is great, but he just doesn't position himself well to get the rebounds. If he could get better there, his PPG would look a lot better which would really give Bama a big boost down the stretch.

[2Stater]

Pollard has yet to look comfortable or confident in his role. CAG is constantly in his ear. I'm not sure he gets it. I hope he does soon because Jacobs, even though showing signs of improvement, is very inconsistent and Gueye just doesn't score, even though he is becoming a very good defensive player. We need a presence from Pollard if we are to become better than a bubble team, IMO.

[BAMAWV]

Arky is a terrible road team. Just sayin'...

[pmull]

Arky is a terrible road team. Just sayin'...

Arky record 12-7 breaks now like this:

12-1 at home
0-4 away
0-2 neutral

You may be right.

[BAMAWV]

Bama up 30 - 23 at the half.

[Catch Prothro]

Bama up 30 - 23 at the half.

Again, they waste the last shot, this time before the half, running clock instead of working to get a good look. 

[BAMAWV]

50-50 3:37

[BAMAWV]

Whew!

[SUPERCOACH]

That was a frustrating win.  I thought we were going to throw that one away at the end.

[BAMAWV]

That was a frustrating win.  I thought we were going to throw that one away at the end.

21 turnovers, including at least 3 on in-bounds plays in the 2nd half.

[Jamos]

Basketball isn't the game that we once used to watch and you can thank the style of officiating for that. There is no consistency of what the game officials consider a foul and it makes it tough for the players to adjust to how they play. There are moments when the player can physically block or tackle an opposing player and then in the blink of an eye you dare not even touch the opposing player.

It's frustrating for us fans to sit and watch a game and you can only imagine how the players feel as they try to adjust to the official's whistle. The style of permissable play sometimes reminds me of a rugby match and it's not entertaining at all, it only increases the risk of injury to the players.

The new "elbow rule" has really given the officials a chance to change a game. It seems it's perfectly ok for the defensive players to mug the player with the ball and he's given no out for trying to escape the grasps of the defensive players and I use the word grasp very literally.

Bama won the game but it wasn't pleasant to watch at all and I put full blame for the sloppiness of the game on the officials. The rules of the game are clearly written in the rule book but to how these rules are enforced is clearly up to the judgement of the officials and to me that is the problem with the game of basketball. JMHO Roll Tide!!

 

[SUPERCOACH]

Good post J.  I found myself thinking the same thing several times last night.  There was one time when we were on offense in the second half where our guy was smacked so hard you could hear it on TV, yet no foul was called.

[ricky023]

Hey Jamos you need to send this post and thought to somebody that might present it to the public. You are dead on. RTR!

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