Alabama vs. Iowa State in Basketball Tonight

[Marshal Dillon]

The Tide is playing a very important game tonight against Iowa State. ISU is #13 in the country and presents a real challenge to the Tide. This game will be a good barometer of where this team is at, skill wise, rebounding, ball handling, etc. Game on ESPN2 @ 8:30 pm.



 













 

[Marshal Dillon]

Info on the game tonight;

The Cyclones are coming off of one of the most successful seasons in their history, as Fred Hoiberg's bunch won 28 games and advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, before getting knocked out by the eventual National Champions. Hoiberg has built a winning program, as the Cyclones have made the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons, and they have no plans of ending that streak this year.

Starting Five

PG Monte Morris (16.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 6.0 APG)
SG Naz Long (13.5 PPG, 3.0 RPG, 1.5 APG, 1.0 SPG)
3G Bryce Dejean-Jones (17.5 PPG, 9.0 RPG, 5.5 APG, 1.5 SPG, 1.0 BPG)
SF Georges Niang (20.0 PPG, 10.0 RPG, 4.0 APG, 1.0 SPG)
PF Dustin Hogue (15.0 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 2.0 APG)

Three Keys to Victory

Wear Them Down. As mentioned earlier, Iowa State has an incredibly shallow bench. However, they run an extremely up-tempo type of basketball. Therefore, getting into a track meet with the Cyclones might be a good idea. Normally, playing to the other team's preference is a bad plan of action, but Alabama has the ability this year to run with Iowa State. The key difference is that Alabama goes ten deep with guys who can play. Randolph, Tarrant, Justin Coleman, Retin Obasohan, Riley Norris, Rodney Cooper, and Shannon Hale are all great transition basketball players. That's a lot more depth than the Cyclones can throw at the Tide. Either the five guys they refuse to sub out will get tired, or the bench players will be forced into significant action

Click here for link



 

[SUPERCOACH]

[Marshal Dillon]

Showtime! ISU will have a huge crowd advantage. Game in KC. Coleman hits 3 to start. Hale hits a 3. 6-2 Tide.



 

[Marshal Dillon]

26-24 ISU. ISU shooting 11/18: Tide 9/21, but 5/11 3 pointers.



 

[Marshal Dillon]

ISU getting too many shots in the paint while Tide is shooting 3 pointers. Perimeter D is weak.

34-26 ISU  4:45 left in half

[Marshal Dillon]

ISU getting too many layups and short shots while we are just throwing the ball up with no effort to get inside. ISU hitting 3's and layups. 41-31 ISU TO.



 

[Marshal Dillon]

Where the heck is pmull, chechem, 2Stater, and the other good basketball posters?



 

[Marshal Dillon]

43-37 ISU Half


FG   13/37
3 PT 6/16
REB 18
AST  8
FT   3/4


Cooper 9 pts  4 rebounds
Hale    8
Levi     7
Norris  5      4 reb


 

[Marshal Dillon]

Well, the same old bug-a-boo is biting the Tide, mainly shooting. So far:


FG   23/58  39.7%
Ast  15 (excellent number)
Reb 28 (excellent, so far)


68-63 ISU  6:00 left in game


 

[Marshal Dillon]

ISU shooting 55% from the field but we are hanging in there. 74-70 ISU, 3:00 left

[Marshal Dillon]

84-74 Iowa St. FINAL  Tide can't score down the stretch. This will be Tide's 16th consecutive loss on the road. Tide plays Arizona State tomorrow. Some good things for Tide but ISU is just too good.



 

[SUPERCOACH]

That was frustrating to watch.  I thought we would come back and when it was about 3 minutes to go.

[2Stater]

Was not able to watch the game last night. What made ISU so good?

[pmull]

Alabama played hard and had a chance to win this game against a very good Iowa State team. We were down by 3 with 1:30 to go. The 10 point margin is misleading. The game was much closer than that.

Iowa State shot the ball much better than us and that was the difference in the game. ISU shot 58% for the game compared to 38% for Bama. We put up 100 total shots to their 71. We did well on the boards. ISU had 34 rebs but only 2 off rebs. We had 31 rebs with 9 off rebs.

Our defense did not play well. We gave up too many drives to the basket results in easy lay ups. I give ISU a lot of credit. They shoot the ball well from all over the floor. Regardless of how good they are giving up 84 points is too much. Our defense needs to improve.

We scored 74 points. This is the lowest score we have had in our four games. That is encouraging since we have struggled to score the last few years. Cooper had a good night with 27 pts. Randolph had 18 and Hale 9. We played 9 players and 8 scored.

It appears CAG is settling into an 8 man rotation. Randolph, Cooper, Hale, Taylor, Coleman, Tarrant, Kessens and Norris. Obasohan only played 5 minutes. I like freshman Riley Norris. He plays hard. In 18 minutes he had 5 pts, 6 rebs, 2 off rebs  and 3 steals.

ISU is a good team playing basically a home game in Kansas City. Several articles I read yesterday said they may be our toughest non conference game. Tonight's game becomes very important. We do not need to go 0-2 on this trip. Arizona State will be another challenge.

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