#18 Alabama at South Alabama Game Thread

The boys in Crimson hit the road for the first time this year, as the youngsters from Alabama head into what should be a raucous crowd at the Mitchell Center for the hometown Jaguars of South Alabama. While the Jags shouldn’t be as dangerous as they were last season, when they gave the Crimson Tide hell in Tuscaloosa, this is a really tricky road trip against an in-state foe who will almost certainly treat this game like it is their Super Bowl.

This will be a real test for the Tide - can this year’s squad avoid the valleys that last year’s team could not? It certainly seems like they are built quite differently, with size and athleticism giving way to much better efforts on defense and in attacking the glass. The Fab Four of Brandon Miller, Jaden Bradley, Noah Clowney, and Rylan Griffen have given this roster a complete facelift, and that’s not even mentioning the exploits of Mark Sears, Nimari Burnett, and Nick Pringle, the former of which paced the Tide in a big way against Liberty.

And we haven’t even seen Dom Welch play yet. He’ll likely be sidelined again tonight, along with Darius Miles and Jahvon Quinerly. So, the Tide will be a bit short-handed again, although you can ask Longwood and Liberty how much that means.

The Tide are currently 11-point road favorites tonight. Tip-off is scheduled for a ridiculous 9:00 PM CST start - I guess that’s the price to pay to be broadcast during a non-conference game like this, as ESPNU will carry the coverage tonight.

Projected Starters

POINT 6’1 Mark Sears

GUARD 6’4 Nimari Burnett

WING 6’8 Brandon Miller

POST 6’9 Noah Clowney

POST 6’10 Charles Bediako

vs

POINT 6’1 Isaiah Moore

GUARD 6’1 Tyrell Jones

GUARD 6’4 Greg Parham

WING 6’6 Owen White

POST 6’10 Kevin Samuel