Fansided

College basketball takeaways: Alabama has to play a little undermanned

By Joseph Nardone

EUGENE, OR - DECEMBER 11: Head coach Avery Johnson of the Alabama Crimson Tide signals to his bench during the first half of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena on December 11, 2016 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images)
EUGENE, OR - DECEMBER 11: Head coach Avery Johnson of the Alabama Crimson Tide signals to his bench during the first half of the game against the Oregon Ducks at Matthew Knight Arena on December 11, 2016 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Steve Dykes/Getty Images) /
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Between three-on-five games to data being corrupt, college basketball is emerging as your grandmother’s favorite sport.

The non-conference portion of the season is still here, but with big boy tournaments currently being had, the entertainment level of the sport has risen from the ashes like that famous carpenter fellow in a cave some 2,000 years ago.

It isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination. That data (we will get to this) isn’t that good, as players are figuring things out, and coaches continue to tinker with lineups.

This makes it a good point to make the obvious annual reminder that, you know, how a team looks against the University of Broken Dreams in the mid-November doesn’t inherently mean it will look like that when facing the Club State Pool Cleaners come March.

Alabama Nearly Wins In Three-On-Five Game

Twitter nearly lost its mind on Saturday when the Alabama Crimson Tide were forced to play with only three players against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. As awesome, led by super-human Collin Sexton, Avery Johnson began to out-coach Richard Pitino and Bama nearly beat Minny.

Let’s put this in some simple perspective:

Using only three players for the final 10:41 of the second half, the Crimson Tide outscored the Golden Gophers 30-22.

Obviously, it is worth noting that Alabama ultimately lost the game, with the final score being 89-84.

We can point to several things in that game as a reason to be excited about either team. We really could. Minnesota’s backcourt appeared to be legit, Johnson figured out a way to coach with only three players, and a slew of other neat things began to rear its head from that game.

None were more swell than Sexton, though.

Sexton scored 31 second-half points, 19 of those coming with only two teammates on the court playing alongside him.

“Collin Sexton, he could beat a single team just one guy on himself. He’s that good,” Pitino said during his on-court, postgame interview. “Obviously, that was just absurd. Just the whole experience. We were shooting these weird twos that we’re not comfortable with, but credit to their defense, I haven’t worked on an offense against three players. So, give Sexton a lot of credit.”

“They’re a really good team. We just had to get out of there with a win.”

Now, to be fair, what is the actual difference between Sexton playing with any two Alabama players or playing with any other four?

I kid! Alabama should be good this season.