Four takeaways from Alabama’s Sweet 16 loss to San Diego State
LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Alabama men’s basketball season came to a screeching halt on Friday night. After winning two NCAA Tournament games to make it to the Sweet 16, the top-seeded Crimson Tide fell 71-64 to No. 5 seed San Diego State, who now moves on to the Elite Eight to play No. 6 seed Creighton.
It was an unfortunate ending to an overall promising season. Below, we break down five takeaways from the loss.
1. Alabama struggles with physicality
To the surprise of almost no one, Alabama continued its season-long trend of struggling against teams who play physical, especially on defense. This led to the Crimson Tide scoring only 62 points while shooting 32.4% from the field and only 11.1% from the three-point line. And yes, you read that correctly.
More on that in a second though.
Several Alabama players spent a significant amount of time on the floor in the first half. The physicality got to them, and it showed. The Tide turned it over 14 times. Sure, they also forced San Diego State into 12 turnovers, but the Aztecs did a much better job knocking down big shots, especially down the stretch.
The 6-foot-10, 230-pound Nathan Mensah was a monster on the defensive end, grabbing five defensive boards and five blocks. And despite being constantly tested by Jahvon Quinerly attacking the basket, Mensah didn’t waver. I haven’t gone back to check, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if 4-5 of those blocks came against JQ.
2. Three-point attack was off
Alabama has gone through spurts of struggling from beyond the arc this season. Some of those struggle games still resulted in wins. The Arkansas game is a perfect example. The Tide shot 13.6% (3-of-22) from the three-point line, and yet, they somehow managed to overcome a nine-point halftime deficit to come out with an 86-83 win.
Friday’s game wasn’t as fortunate.
Alabama once again only made three of its three-point attempts.
After throwing up 27 tries instead of 22, that comes out to just 11.1%. Normally against a team that’s limited in offensive efficiency like San Diego State, that wouldn’t be crippling. But as I mentioned earlier, the Aztecs knocked down some big shots in this one. They hit 6-of-17 attempts, which comes out to 35.3%.
Obviously, this loss falls on a lot more than just three-point shooting, but we should at least note that SDSU had three more made attempts and won by seven points. The 24 misses on Alabama’s side were a collective effort, too. Jahvon Quinerly hit one of his three (33.3%), but no other Tide player hit more than 20%.
Most people will point to Brandon Miller‘s 1-of-10 outing, but that’s mostly due to the volume.
To me, the biggest head-scratcher continued to be Ohio transfer Mark Sears. Granted, Sears scored a team-high 16 points on Friday evening, but he was 0-for-5 from beyond the arc. Outside of his 3-of-4 performance against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, he was 4-of-34 (11.8%) in Alabama’s six other games to close out the season.
3. Miller was affected by his groin
I don’t know how much Miller’s groin injury affected him, but I can tell you that it did to some degree. Watching him, we just haven’t seen the same caliber of drive-and-score performances since the NCAA Tournament got underway. Before the injury, he could rely on that aspect of his game when he was struggling to shoot the long ball.
Miller almost finished with a double-double (9 points, 11 rebounds) to go along with three assists and a steal, but anyone who watched knew this wasn’t the same player who dominated throughout the entire regular season. He wasn’t as aggressive trying to finish at the rim, and his 1-of-10 three-point shooting was ugly.
Unfortunately, this is how his career will end in Tuscaloosa. But at the same time, there’s not denying that Alabama wouldn’t be in the position it was in (top overall seed with SEC regular season and tournament championships) without him. He’ll forever be one of — if not — the best basketball players to ever come through the program.
Now, it’s time for the NBA lottery.
4. JQ might’ve tried to do too much
Quinerly has a reputation for being Mr. March.
That nickname was already starting to become a thing prior to this season, but this most recent stretch is what had solidified it for him. Going into Friday, the veteran guard had scored double digits in six of Alabama’s seven games in March. He had been averaging 14.9 points in those games, too.
When Alabama maybe wasn’t getting enough from Miller on the scoring end, Quinerly rose to the occasion and played the Superman role. His 24 points against Auburn and 22 points against Texas A&M were a key difference in those games. Clearly, he had earned the right to try and take over a game, but he might’ve tried to force things a little too much against the Aztecs.
Sure, he posted double-digit points (10) again while having the only respectable three-point average (33.3%), but part of what has made Quinerly lethal at times was his ability to drive and kick. Yes, Alabama was struggling to shoot the ball efficiently, but who knows what would’ve happened with a more better looks.
Instead, Quinerly kept trying to do it all on his own. The results weren’t great either.
The timing of his two missed free throws were unfortunate, too. One would’ve closed San Diego State’s lead to four points with just over four minutes to play. The other came on a one-and-one where Alabama was attempting to climb its was back into the game (64-55 score) with 3:02 remaining.
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