When you first think of Alabama athletics you immediately envision the football team, Nick Saban, and the 17 national championships. Alabama is a school known for its athletics and while football is the strong representation of the school, Alabama is also known for being excellent in softball, golf, tennis, baseball, gymnastics, and many others. While Alabama does have Nick Saban and an excellent football program that sends many players to the NFL, Alabama basketball is making a name for itself this year with head coach Avery Johnson leading the way.
Avery Johnson arrived in 2015 and immediately started rebuilding the program and bringing in amazing talent for the school. However, in his first year, Alabama ended the year with an 8-10 record in the SEC. During the season a highly touted freshman tore his ACL ending his first season at Alabama. While this was the same record in Anthony Grant’s final season Johnson was set to improve on this record the following year where he finished with a 10-8 record in SEC play and advanced to the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament where they lost to Kentucky. Alabama accepted an invitation to the NIT tournament but lost in the first round to Richmond.
After his first two years at Alabama, Avery Johnson responded by recruiting the 6th-rated class in ESPN for basketball with notable recruits Collin Sexton, John Petty, and Herb Jones. Sexton was a McDonald’s All-American and played at FIBA U17 World Championships in Spain helping the US win the gold medal and being named MVP. John Petty was named Gatorade Alabama Player of the Year twice and was also Mr. Basketball in the state of Alabama in 2016 and 2017. Alabama was getting two very talented players and they were coming in ready to compete and help Alabama back on the basketball scene.
This season Alabama has been very dominant in basketball but has also been a little sloppy. They began the season ranked #25 in the rankings and was undefeated for the first four games. However, Alabama lost some very close games and lost some to opponents in the SEC who weren’t very strong teams. What caught everyone’s attention though was Alabama’s ability to take down ranked teams.
Alabama is 6-1 against ranked teams with the only loss coming against Minnesota when the bench was fouled out. While there are times that Alabama does struggle yesterday seemed to show Alabama wanted to be on their a game. Alabama defeated LSU by 15 points with Donta Hall scoring 20 points, which makes this story even better.
Many thought that this year it would be all Collin Sexton and John Petty and while they have stepped up in huge ways and helped the team, the other pieces of the team are falling into place. This year Alabama has seen the emergence of Donta Hall into a very dominant role using his size and speed to help on the court in every way possible. Braxton Key, after a stellar freshman year where he led the team in scoring is a jack of all trades and is third on the team in rebounds behind Dazon Ingram and Hall.
Even with all the freshmen playing the upperclassmen are still showing they can play and be a dominant force.
