Alabama worked all season to get a high seed in the NCAA Tournament, which is supposed to provide an easier path to the later rounds. 15-seed Robert Morris came to play, however, and gave the Tide all they wanted.
This Alabama team has shown a propensity this season to play down to midmajor competition, and this game was no exception. The effort on defense, and on the glass in particular, was uneven at best. It didn’t help matters that Grant Nelson came into the game banged up, Jarin Stevenson hurt his wrist early and Cliff Omoruyi turned an ankle in the second half, but the issue was mostly just sheer effort. RMU came into this game with something to prove and nothing to lose, and Alabama struggled to match their energy.
It was also a rough game for Alabama from three. Mark Sears had one of his best games in Crimson as a distributor with 10 assists, but was dreadful shooting the basketball. It’s hard to imagine Alabama going far if Mark doesn’t get his three ball working again. The Tide made only six of 21 tries from three on the day despite many open looks, including quite a few in transition. If you’re the glass half full type, you can be encouraged by the fact that they got a poor shooting day out of the way in the first round game and hope that it’s the last one of the tournament. That is not guaranteed, obviously.
Omoruyi didn’t do much on the glass in this one but he did score 17 points on some highlight reel dunks. The ankle issue slowed him considerably though. Nate Oats seemingly wanted to keep Grant Nelson out of the game but ended up putting him in, and he provided a few key hustle plays to help pull out the win.
Ultimately, Alabama survived despite allowing an embarrassing 16 offensive boards against only five of their own. It goes without saying that they will need to play much better going forward if they plan on sticking around and competing for anything. Hope for the best.
Plenty of ball left on for you today, of course. Join in the discussion.
Roll Tide.
