After Alabama led the nation in scoring the last two seasons, coach Nate Oats could have sat back and let the machine continue to move full speed ahead. Instead, he added another gear.
Somehow during the crucible of a long season against killer competition both out of conference and in the SEC, Oats finds time to watch NBA games, and he takes notes, too. He wants to know what the best basketball league in the world is up to, and how it can help his team. So after last season, Oats, based on his NBA notebook, decided to crank up the nation’s most prolific offense. “The NBA is changing year to year,” Oats told Hoops HQ in July. “But they’re not getting any slower, and they’re not taking any fewer 3s. We’re going to try to be faster than we’ve been, if that’s possible.”
It turns out that is possible. St. John’s, then ranked No. 5, found that out Saturday when the Crimson Tide rolled into Madison Square Garden and came away with a 103-96 victory, which vaulted the Tide to No. 8 in the Associated Press poll and No. 9 in the Coaches Poll.
If someone who didn’t know the score looked at the shooting percentages from that game, it might have appeared the Red Storm won. St. John’s shot better from the field, three-point range and the free-throw line. But here’s why the Tide prevailed: With its video game cheat code pace, Alabama cranked up 81 shots, 18 more than St. John’s. Some of those extra shots came from the nine steals the Tide made, and Alabama also had a 14-10 advantage on the offensive glass, resulting in 19 second-chance points to 15 for the Red Storm.
And then there’s this: Alabama sophomore guard Labaron Philon, Jr. turned in the game of his career, earning SEC Player of the Week honors by racking up 25 points. He got help from junior guard Aden Holloway, who scored 21, and Florida State transfer Taylor Bol Bowen, who delivered 17 points and 9 rebounds.
Despite those 46 points contributed by Philon and Holloway, Oats thought Bol Bowen was Alabama’s X-factor in the victory. “The plays he made, the blocks he made, even the ones he didn’t block where he challenged shots, the rebounds,” Oats said. “He had seven at the half. If Taylor doesn’t bring it like he brought it, we have no chance to win this game, especially with the rest of the guys being in foul trouble in frontcourt.”
It’s just one game, but Bol Bowen has given Oats what he recruited him for.
“He’s long and he’s athletic,” Oats said. “He shot 41 percent from three last year. We were trying to get positional size, and he’s a really good rim protector at the four. He’s tall enough you can play him as a small-ball five. He’s not as big and physical as Grant Nelson, but Taylor’s a better shooting four.”
Oats told some media members after the game he thought Alabama had been “overlooked” heading into the season. After the St. John’s game, Oats doesn’t have to worry about that anymore.
Ament isn’t the only Tennessee freshman who has fit in quickly
Everyone expected Tennessee freshman Nate Ament — a former five-star recruit — to make immediate and significant contributions, and the 6-foot-10 forward didn’t disappoint in his first week as a college player. In lopsided wins over Mercer and Eastern Kentucky, Ament averaged 20.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists and shot 52.2 percent from the field, 37.5 percent from three and 82.4 from the free-throw line. Those performances earned him the SEC’s first Freshman of the Week award of the season, an honor a Tennessee player hasn’t won since Julian Phillips did so in January 2023.
If Ament was expected to perform, fewer Vol fans might have predicted that two other less heralded freshmen have already established their place in coach Rick Barnes’ rotation. DeWayne Brown II is averaging 13.5 minutes a game despite the fact Tennessee has a deep and experienced foursome of post players. He’s fourth on the team in scoring (6.0 points per game), is averaging 4.0 boards and is shooting 83.3 percent from the floor. He’s a below-the-rim player but makes up for a lack of explosion with his size, strength and long arms. He’s crafty and aggressive around the rim. Brown, says every member of the Tennessee staff Hoops HQ has spoken with, was the surprise player in the Vols’ summer and fall practices.
Troy Henderson, a 6-foot-1 point guard, is second on the team in assists after handing out five against Northern Kentucky. He’s the first Tennessee freshman with five or more assists and no turnovers since Kennedy Chandler (seven) in the SEC Tournament title game versus Texas A&M on March 13, 2022. Barnes loves Henderson’s mentality. “He’s fearless,” Barnes tells Hoops HQ. “He plays like he knows he belongs.” Henderson is also an above-average three-point shooter.
Perhaps it’s not so surprising Brown and Henderson have quickly adapted to the college game. They’re winners who each led their high schools to three state championships, Brown at Hoover in Alabama and Henderson at Lancaster (two) and John Marshall in Virginia.
Around the Rim
• As Hoops HQ’s Oliver Fell wrote recently, the SEC is loaded with incoming international players. Fell rated Ole Miss recruit Ilias Kamardine, a 6-foot-4 guard and native of France, the second-best overseas player entering the league, and so far that prediction is looking good.
Kamardine, a 21-year-old veteran of France’s top professional league, has already earned a starting job, and on Nov. 11 in an Ole Miss victory over Memphis, he sent a message. Kamardine, who started and played 35 minutes, scored 26 points on 11 of 14 shooting, including 3 of 4 from three-point range. He also handed out four assists, picked up a steal and blocked a shot. It was the first 20-point game of his young college career, but it won’t be his last.
“He stays prepared; he’s got a pro’s mentality,” Rebels coach Chris Beard said after the game. “He’s a guy that we trust. Whatever opportunity he gets, he makes the most of it.”
Kamardine leads Ole Miss in scoring (18.0) and is shooting 65.6 percent from the field and 53.8 percent from three. His only blemish so far is the free-throw line, where he’s shooting 50 percent (5 of 10). “He needs to fire his free-throw coach,” Beard said. “I’m going to go to work on it.”
A more neutral observer of Kamardine’s performance, SEC Network color analyst Dane Bradshaw, came away impressed.
“He’s the smartest player on the floor,” Bradshaw told Hoops HQ. “He makes everyone better, controls pace, he’s a three-level scorer and he makes hard plays look easy.”
• Keyshawn Hall is picking up where he left off last season, when, playing for UCF, he led the Big 12 in scoring. In his first three games after transferring to Auburn, he’s averaged 24.3 points and 11.0 rebounds while shooting 58.1 percent from the field, 75 percent from three and 91.2 percent from the free-throw line. He’s already attempted 34 free throws.
Hall, a 6-7, 240-pound senior, scored 28 points and drew 11 fouls in an overtime win over Bethune-Cookman and followed that performance with a rare triple-double against Merrimack — 25 points, 14 boards and 10 fouls drawn. He made 12 of 13 free throws in that game. Against Wofford on Nov. 11, Hall contributed 20 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals and 3 blocked shots and drew another 6 fouls. He was also 3 for 3 from behind the arc.
Before former Auburn coach Bruce Pearl retired in September and handed the program over to his son, Steven, he succinctly summed up Hall’s game.
“He’s a bucket-getter,” Pearl said. “He can do it inside out, he can get to the foul line at a high percentage, he really competes.”
• Florida seems back on track after a season-opening loss to Arizona, though the Gators had to work to hold off rival Florida State in a 78-76 win in Gainesville on Nov. 11. The Gators’ weakness so far has been three-point shooting; at 21.1 percent, they ranked 335th in Division I. Thomas Haugh, converted this season from power forward to a wing position, leads the team at 31.2 percent, but Florida’s guards are struggling mightily. Boogie Fland and Xaivian Lee, two starters recruited from the portal to replace last year’s tandem of Walter Clayton, Jr. and Alijah Martin, are shooting 16.7 percent and 20.7 percent, respectively. Returning guards Urban Klavzar (21.4 percent) and Isaiah Brown (25.0 percent) aren’t much better.
What makes these percentages worrisome to the Florida coaching staff is opposing teams are geared up to try and stop Florida’s deep and talented front line, leaving open shots for perimeter players. So far, those shots aren’t falling.
“Against Arizona, we’re 7 of 30 from three,” Florida associate head coach Carlin Hartman tells Hoops HQ. “If we’re 10 out of 30 we win the game.”
So what’s the answer? Time. The Gators, even those returning from last season’s national championship team, are still adjusting to different roles.
“I think it’ll come around,” Hartman says. “You have to study the type of threes we’re taking. Guys have to recognize how hard those closeouts are, maybe ball fake, get into the lane and score off two feet. Or if you’re just an OK shooter, drive that closeout and kick it to a better shooter. We’re still trying to figure out who we are, just like everybody else in the country.”
• You’re not going to see many better dunks this season than this ridiculous tomahawk number by Kentucky’s Collin Chandler against Nicholls State. Chandler, who followed Kentucky coach Mark Pope from BYU — though he never played there because of a two-year Mormon mission — was thought to be primarily a jump shooter, but he’s obviously got some hops, too.
It’s been a minute since Chandler was a high school player, but people forget he was a top 40 recruit in 2022 before embarking on his mission.
“He’s explosive and sneaky getting to the rim,” Pope said. “He makes a lot of plays on instinct but is also great at processing what is going on around him at all times.”
Games to Watch
Purdue vs. Alabama, Nov. 13 (ESPN 2)
Oats said many times during the summer and preseason practice he thought this was the best shooting team he’s coached at Alabama, but he might have tipped his hand before that. The tell was Alabama’s schedule, which, in a word, is brutal. After its win at St. John’s, the Crimson Tide play consecutive games against Purdue, Illinois (in Chicago) and Gonzaga (in the first round of the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas). The No. 1 Boilermakers come to Tuscaloosa at 2-0, with wins over Evansville and Oakland.
Houston vs. Auburn, Nov. 16 (ESPN)
The Cougars don’t have to go to Auburn, but they’ll still be in hostile territory when they take on the Tigers; the game will be played in the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. The game will be a study in coaching contrast — Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, who’s leading his fifth school in a 37-year career, against Auburn’s Steven Pearl, who has three games on his resume after taking over the program from his father.
Miami at Florida, Nov. 16 (ESPN)
First-year Miami coach Jai Lucas will take a 3-0 record into a semi-neutral site (Jacksonville, Fla.) game against the defending national champions. The Gators lost to Arizona in Las Vegas on Nov. 3 but quickly regrouped with a 40-point win over North Florida and held off rival Florida State for a two-point win.
