Points in the Paint and Bracketology: SEC play has seen ‘Bama improve in almost every area — almost.

‘Bama has the bye this week, so no previews until Friday. But, we’ll hit some bracketology today, as well as peek this week’s installment of our semi-regular data roundup of the Tide.

Tale of The Tape: Alabama 19-3 (8-1, 2nd)

AP: No. 3 (last week 4)
Coaches: No. 3 (last week No. 4)
RPI: No. 2 (last week 2)
NET Ranking: No. 6 (last week 9, 6-3 Q1)
Best NET Win: No. 3 Houston
Worst NET Loss: No. 36 Oregon
SOS: 2nd

Scoring Offense: 1st (90.2 PPG)
Asst/TO ratio: 105th (1.29 to 1)
Bench PPG: 6th (35.53)
Effective Shooting: 33rd (.556)
Break Points: 23rd (14.64)
3PA PG: 11th (30.3)
3P%: 198th (33.29%)
FTA PG: 4th (27.7)
FT%: 212th (70.85%)
TO PG: 286th (13.2 PG)

Scoring Defense: 305th (77.2 PPG)
FG% Defense: 64th (40.293%)
3PT Defense: 42nd (29.2%)
Def. Reb. PG: 2nd (30.82)
Off. Reb. PG: 11th (13.95)
Total Reb. PG: 2nd (44.77)
Opp. Reb. PG: 63rd (37.2)
Reb. Margin: 15th (7.0 PG)
TO Forced PG: 304th (10.49 PG)
TO Margin: 326th (-2.6 PG)

Ken Pom: 6th (2 Off, 42 Defense, 1st empo)
Evan Miya: 4th (3 Off, 30 Defense, 1st Tempo)
Bart Torvik: 5th (2 Off, 35th Defense, 1st Tempo)

This Week’s Most Impressive Stat: Offensive Rebounding (13.9 — second in major division behind only Florida, with their two 7-footers. 11th overall)
Stat That Tells A Darker Story: Forced turnovers per game (10.4%, 311th); opponent-turnover percentage (17.9%, 346th).

The SEC is the hardest conference in all of basketball this season. As of this writing, there are nine teams in the Top 25, and four of the Top 6 hail from the SEC. As many as 13 teams are in play for an NCAA tournament bid, with the possibility of a 14th getting on the bubble. Even left-for-dead Arkansas went to Lexington and ran away a road win despite their depleted roster.

How stacked is this conference? Georgia is 15th — a KenPom Top 40 team.

At this point, you can only say that South Carolina is probably done for the year. Probably.

Despite that, Alabama has seen its stats improve almost-uniformly across the board. Everything from free throw shooting, to perimeter shooting, to scoring allowed: The Tide are clicking. They have lost one game since December started, and have ran their record to 13-1 since that uninspired loss to Oregon.

The outlier though is a huge problem: Turnovers.

Alabama simply cannot stop turning the ball over (they had 20 on Saturday), nor can they force turnovers. It is a two-headed monster that has gotten demonstrably worse as SEC play has begun. Perhaps an illustration is in order to show you the magnitude of the woe.

Georgia is among the worst teams in the SEC in turning the ball over (about 13 per game), and UGA PG Silas Demary is one of the three most turnover-prone point men in the league (up there with Mark Sears and Zakaria Zeigler, in carelessness). On Saturday, Alabama had 20 total turnovers, forced just 9 all game — and Demary had zero turnovers. None.

The Tide simply cannot put pressure on the ball, nor can they stop giving it away. Sears and Grant have been especially brutal at times. The inability to force stops has resulted in losses, and almost resulted in several other embarrassing moments (North Dakota, Rutgers, etc). Conversely, ‘Bama’s unwillingness to actually think before they put the ball in play has directly led to losses before: Ole Miss, Oregon is that you?

There is not a more critical issue (to me) than this tango of suck, and it is primarily originating in the UA backcourt. If Alabama falls short of its goals this year, which should be no less than a Final Four appearance, you can maddeningly script out how it’s going to happen and why…and it will almost certainly originate with with the guards.

This is not what you want to see out of a 5th year senior, an NBA prospect PG, and a coveted senior transfer. Nor should Nate Oats accept it either.

BRACKETOLOGY

Chris Dobbertean’s Blogging the Bracket: 1-line, Midwest

• Call this the Hidden Danger regional, chock full of quality defensive teams that can officially be trouble: Luvl, West Virginia, Vandy, Ole Miss, Iowa State. Don’t forget upstart Drake, who already is sitting at 20 wins either. Then there are the two Midwest powers ‘Bama has already played (Illinois, Purdue). And, like Jerry Palm, BTB decided to reward them with potential short road trips in their geographic footprints.

Jerry Palm (CBS Sports): 1-line, Midwest

• This is my least-preferred of the week, and you can see why. Meeting Kentucky for at least the third time (and possibly the fourth), a rematch with Purdue in Indianapolis, the lethal ‘Zags offense, the defensive monsters in Lawrence, hella’ dangerous Michigan and West Virginia squads, another 3-point shooting team with outstanding rebounding in Illinois — and there are simply too many rematches here. Alabama has played five of these teams already, and just played GCU last season. And, because Palm can’t help himself, despite this being ‘Bama’s Region, it heavily favors Big 10 teams.

Lunardi (ESPN): 1-line Midwest

• Perhaps my favorite of the week: It minimizes rematches, and importantly, it doesn’t reward too many Big 10 teams by essentially giving them a home court for ‘Bama’s region. And while the Tide have played five of these teams, it doesn’t feel like as many rematches here. There are some super nasty squads lurking here though. Ole Miss and Marquette go without saying. But don’t sleep on Irvine. The Anteaters are one of the best teams you’ve probably never seen play. Creighton’s size and Arizona’s offense can pose problems too. And, of course, f’n Purdue. Always with f’n Purdue.

That’s it for this installment. We’ll see you again in a week or two.

Roll Tide