The factors that matter when Alabama tests 4-game win streak at LSU - AL.com

The two longest winning streaks in the SEC will collide Wednesday evening in Baton Rouge.

The four-game run for Alabama is bettered only by No. 22 LSU’s eight straight wins entering the 6 p.m. meeting in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. It’ll be a meeting of contrasting styles and the SEC’s top two scoring offenses.

We’ll take a look at the important factors/issues facing Alabama (12-7, 4-2 SEC) in this trip south.

Better competition

After upsetting Auburn, the next three wins in Alabama’s streak were games it was supposed to win. In terms of the NET rankings, those victories came against No. 87 Missouri, No. 164 Vanderbilt and No. 88 Kansas State -- all Quadrant 3 or 4 wins.

The next two Alabama opponents (LSU and Arkansas) are top-30 NET teams followed by a visit from No. 55 Tennessee.

Tide coach Nate Oats noted his team still doesn’t have a quality road win after last week’s victory in Nashville.

“With Vanderbilt’s injuries, that’s not going to be a quality road win,” Oats said, “so we need to get some. If you’re trying to play in the NCAA tournament, you need résumé wins. You need quality road wins and this is an opportunity to get a real quality one.”

Alabama lost three road games at NET top-37 teams Kentucky, Penn State and Florida by an average of 4.6 points.

Remember Trendon Watford?

Oats was hired just as five-star Mountain Brook product Trendon Watford’s recruiting wrapped up. The new coach took a swing, but it was clear LSU was the destination for the nation’s No. 18 recruit in the 247Sports composite.

Well, Watford is proving his value in his first season with the Tigers. Named SEC freshman of the week on Monday, the forward started all but one game this year. He’s scoring 13.2 points a game and is coming off a season-high 22 points in Saturday’s win at Texas.

Oats described Watford’s game as “old-school NBA” from watching his LSU tape while noting Herbert Jones “is the ideal matchup” defensively.

“He’ll go to the mid-post, the elbow area and he’s a smart player,” Oats said. “He picks up fouls. He’s been well-trained and they play through him a lot for a true freshman.”

It’ll be a special experience for Jones.

“I mean, he’s my best friend,” the Alabama junior said of Watford, his former AAU teammate.

The two still talk daily, though very little about basketball, Jones said.

Close games

LSU (15-4, 6-0 SEC) has an eight-game winning streak the hard way. After beating Tennessee 78-64 on January 4, the next six wins came by a combined 15 points. None of those games came with a cushion of more than four points including Saturday’s 69-67 win at Texas.

Alabama, meanwhile, is 1-2 in games decided by five or fewer points. That lone win came Saturday against Kansas State, 77-74.

“I know Coach (Will) Wade wants them to blow some teams open,” Oats said. “All coaches want to do that. The one thing I’ll say is we would have loved to get up 16 on K-State and blown that thing open but we were finally able to win a close game against K-State.”

Injury update

Alabama redshirt freshman Javian Davis played just five minutes against Kansas State after getting 12 in the win at Vanderbilt. A minor knee injury was the cause, Oats said, but he’s looked considerably better in practice the past few days.

“He was almost there Saturday,” Oats said, “but when you’re as big as he is and play as hard as he does, you have to have full confidence that your knees are going to hold up and he just didn’t quite have it on Saturday.”

Davis is averaging 5.9 points and 4.1 rebounds a game with nine starts early in the season.

Offensive rebounds

The 22-3 offensive rebounding deficit Alabama had in the win over Kansas State still bugs Oats. This is a Tide team that averages 41.5 rebounds a game, the most in the SEC, but is sixth in the league on the offensive glass.

LSU’s had double-figure offensive rebounding games in each of the last seven games. That includes grabbing 23 in a 79-77 win against Arkansas.

“If we don’t get a lot tougher,” Oats said, “we’re going to get blown out at LSU.”

Michael Casagrande is an Alabama beat writer for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.

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https://www.al.com/alabamabasketball/2020/01/the-factors-that-matter-when-alabama-tests-4-game-win-streak-at-lsu.html

2020-01-29 12:03:00Z
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