LEXINGTON, Ky. — Alabama went hunting seals on Saturday afternoon at Rupp Arena.
Early on against No. 8 Kentucky, Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats started communicating to his players on the floor who in blue he deemed the seal, a term for a weaker defender. It’s a metaphor Oats picked up from Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla. Killer whales hunt seals, and they do so in schools. The lesson is that one guy cannot just attack the seal — it takes five guys hunting together.
It woke up an offense that went into hibernation on Tuesday in a loss to Ole Miss, which used a switching defense that Alabama was not aggressive enough attacking. The fourth-ranked Crimson Tide were as tactically proficient offensively as they’ve been all season in this one, a 102-97 win that gave Mark Pope his first loss at Rupp.
“They were pretty diligent,” Pope said. “They went at the guys that you would expect, and then they adjusted as the game went on. I thought they were pretty smart about how they went about it.”
The seals were a trio of Kentucky guards — freshman Travis Perry and seniors Koby Brea and Jaxson Robinson.
Instead of just playing iso ball on the designated seal, Alabama would put that guy in action. The man guarded by the seal would either have the ball and get a ball screen or be the one to set the screen. And the goal was not always to score right away.
“You were going to attack,” freshman guard Labaron Philon explained, “or get somebody else open for the opportunity to attack.”
That’s the “school” mentality. It’s not just getting the kill yourself; it’s setting someone else up for the kill.
For instance, here’s Philon with the seal (Perry) on him, and his penetration into the lane forced help, setting up Mark Sears for a clear path to the paint, and once he’s met at the rim, he finds a cutting Grant Nelson:
Oats was drawing up plays on the fly, and the easiest scenario to attack the seal was on inbounds plays.
Alabama would inbound the ball to the power forward at the opposite elbow of his strong hand, then have the seal’s man set up on the opposite block, coming up to set a ball screen, which created a switch so he could pick on the seal:
And Mouhamed Dioubate’s turn:
Notice in both of those that Oats parked Sears in the corner toward the power forward’s strong hand, so that the corner defender wasn’t going to help.
In total, Alabama scored nine points when involving Brea in action, eight points on Robinson and 10 on Perry, who played only seven minutes.
Kentucky also had the misfortune of catching Alabama in what might be its most motivated point of the season. Oats was displeased with the performance against Ole Miss, which was Alabama’s only third home loss in the last three seasons. The Crimson Tide attempted only 20 3s in that game — the target is 30-plus — and didn’t shoot it well, making only five. They were also sloppy with the ball, committing 21 turnovers.
The two who struggled most were Nelson — 3-of-7 at the line and five turnovers — and Philon, who went 0-of-8 from the field and had three turnovers. The Alabama coaches made a tweak to Nelson’s shot, and on Thursday he made 90-of-100 free throws at the end of practice and then upped that to 91-of-100 on Friday. And against Kentucky: Nelson went 9-of-10, and he also came out aggressive, burying two 3s early after air-balling his first attempt. Nelson scored 25 points, which was his most in two seasons at Alabama.
Philon spent the rest of the week following Tuesday’s loss working out three times a day: once before 8 a.m. film, once after practice and then returning again at 10 p.m.
“After the struggle I had, I really just looked at myself in the mirror and said, ‘I just got to bust it from here on out,’” Philon said.
The freshman came into the game shooting 26 percent from 3; he made 3-of-5 against the Cats, including the dagger with just under three minutes left that put the game away, stretching Bama’s lead to nine.
“It’s not rocket science,” Oats said. “You spend time in the gym and you make shots. You spend time in the gym and you make your free throws.”
Sears was also terrific, finishing with 24 points, nine assists and just one turnover. He shot when he was open and then consistently got into the paint and knew exactly where his teammates were going to be, delivering pinpoint passes. Sears, of course, was rarely guarded by the seal, and he was willing to play off the ball when it was time to intentionally pick on the weaker defenders.
This was more like what we expected out of Alabama this season, flooding the floor with shooters and making the defense feel like there is just too much space to cover. But because Alabama hasn’t shot it great from deep (32.4 percent) and is missing some of its best shooters — Latrell Wrightsell and Houston Mallette out for the season with injuries — Oats has been forced to play some lineups with not as many shooters as he’d like.
And that brings us to Alabama’s other promising development against UK. Senior guard Chris Youngblood, playing his ninth game since returning from an ankle injury that forced him to miss the first nine, is starting to get his rhythm and confidence. Youngblood, the AAC Player of the Year last season at South Florida, was 13-of-46 from 3 this season after shooting 40-plus percent each of the last three seasons.
“I think Youngblood’s coming,” Oats told me Friday night during Alabama’s shootaround at Rupp.
Youngblood made 2-of-3 triples against the Cats.
And with both Youngblood and Philon hitting, Alabama made 13-of-34 3s as a team, a more-than-respectable 38.2 percent. It also had Kentucky stretched out.
Which had those seals, as Oats put it, out there in the open like sitting ducks.
“Killer whales basically eat seals for breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he said.
And the Crimson Tide returned to Tuscaloosa feeling full and looking like a national title contender again.
(Photo of Grant Nelson: Jordan Prather / Imagn Images)
