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| Time | 7:00pm CST |
| Location | Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Al |
| TV | ESPN2 |
| Internet | WatchESPN |
| Radio | CTSN |
As pointed out by Erik_RBR, we now have three losses against teams with wretched RPIs - Mercer (162), Tulane (165), and Auburn (208). Our RPI currently sits at 69th, which alone is not terrible but coupled with the aforementioned losses spells doom for any tourney hopes we had. At this point we are fighting for our NIT lives, and that is far from a given the way we are executing our offense. Prior to the Wednesday night debacle, I thought we had a legitimate shot at winning 6-8 of our final 10 games; take out the two road games at Florida and Ole Miss and the schedule is was quite manageable.
UA Head Coach Anthony Grant on the Auburn loss (per UA Athletics)
"We got outplayed in every facet of the game. Their energy, their effort, their focus were much better than ours. I think in the second half it showed. You look at the run they went on and our inability to score. I think their effort was just much better than ours."
"We had opportunities in the first half. We were up 15-3 and we went almost seven minutes and didn't score a point. We didn't take advantage of the chances we were given."
On to tonight's contest...
LSU (13-7, 4-5) comes into the game on a 3 game winning streak (4 of their last 5) including wins against Missouri, at Mississippi State, and Vanderbilt. The Tigers bring 2 forwards (So. Johnny O'Bryant III, Jr. Shavon Coleman) who average double figures in PPG and will test a Crimson Tide interior that has been...below average (terrible). Defensively LSU leads the conference in steals per game (10.3) as So. guard Anthony Hickey leads the nation in SPG (3.5).
Bama enters after a heartbreaking loss at Auburn to a struggling Tiger squad coming off a 6 game winning streak (YOU'RE WELCOME, AUBS). Defensively the Tide played well as we held Auburn to 47 points but our offensive woes continued as we scored just 37 points, including a measely 13 in the second half.
We were blown out by a team we held to 47 points. In the same game. Ahem...
There really isn't much else to say about the game. We couldn't shoot the broadside of a barn (see what I did there?) and had absolutely no inside game whatsoever. Moussa Gueye and Brandon Jacobs were ineffective inside and the Tide shot a measly 28.6% (14-49) from the field. Until we get help inside, we are dead in the water as far as moving forward, this season or next.
I'll add a detailed look at our stats next week following our game tonight. Roll Tide!