Alabama’s men’s basketball team will play three games in as many days Monday-Wednesday, as it takes part in the annual Maui Invitational, which had to be moved to Asheville, N.C.
The Crimson Tide (1-0) will play Stanford on Monday, Nov. 30 (8:30 p.m. CT on ESPN2), either North Carolina or UNLV on Tuesday and then a third team on Wednesday. Playing that many games in consecutive days can oftentimes be challenging, but head coach Nate Oats believes his team is better suited to handle that this season compared to his first year.
“We had the same deal last year in Atlantis,” Oats said Sunday. “We were really beat up by the end of it. Our depth wasn’t nearly as good as it is this year. If you look at our minutes against Jacksonville State, I think 26 minutes led us. We had four or five guys right around the 20-minute mark. If we can continue to do that and play guys closer to 25 minutes instead of 35, which we had to do a lot last year … hopefully we can distribute them a little more evenly here with our depth and have guys more fresh on Tuesday and Wednesday than what we did last year.”
Alabama’s upcoming game against Stanford will be its second of the season. The Tide won its season opener against Jacksonville State, 81-57, Wednesday in a game Oats said Alabama’s defense was much improved. Offensively, however, the Tide was “really behind.” Oats wants to see the defense travel to Harrah’s Cherokee Center and the shooting improve.
“Jacksonville State’s a quality team,” Oats said. “They play hard. They had 20 (offensive) boards against us. That was the one area where I was a little disappointed on our defensive end. But if we can play that good of defense against Jacksonville State, now we’ve gotta prove we can do it against a Power 5 school like Stanford. We’re really trying to get them locked into the defensive end again and still have confidence that our shots will fall on offense.”
Alabama has one game under its belt this season, but Stanford has yet to play. The Cardinal’s 2020-21 opener against Utah Valley State was canceled because of a positive COVID-19 test and subsequent contact tracing for UVU. That leaves UA with zero games to scout.
But Stanford does return four of its five starters from last year’s team and added freshman Ziaire Williams, who was the nation’s No. 5 overall recruit in the 2020 cycle per 247Sports. The Cardinal returns 74 percent of its scoring from its 2019-20 team and added one of the best high school players in the nation to a roster that finished 20-12 (9-9 Pac-12) a year ago.
“They’re good,” Oats said. “They added the Ziaire Williams kid. I think ESPN’s latest mock draft, they’ve got him going fifth. He’s one of the most talented freshmen in the country. That’ll be a good matchup with Herb (Jones). He’s 6-8, long, athletic, really skilled. Hopefully, Herb’s experience helps him on the defensive end. I think Herb’s one of the better defenders in the country.”
This will mark Alabama’s second appearance in the Maui Invitational. The only other showing occurred in 2008 when the Crimson Tide finished 2-1, falling to Oregon in the opening round before finishing play with back-to-back wins over Chaminade and Saint Joseph’s.
Alabama will take on Stanford in the opening round of this year’s unique Maui Invitational. In addition to the Crimson Tide and Cardinal, other participants in the 37th annual edition of the event include Davidson, Indiana, North Carolina, Providence, Texas and UNLV.
“Maui always has a quality field,” Oats said.
“When you look at our side of the bracket, North Carolina’s obviously North Carolina. I don’t anticipate them being down like they were last year. They’ll be back up. UNLV, I think they finished second in their league last year, and they added a couple guys in. That’ll be a quality game there. And then the other four teams, Indiana is obviously one of the best basketball programs in the country. Texas has a big-time front court, really good recruiting classes. Providence is really good, and then Davidson is one of the best-coached teams in the country.
“I think we’re gonna end up with three really good games. We’re hoping to be playing in the championship on Wednesday. It’s John Petty’s birthday, so I told him it’d be a great birthday present, winning the Maui championship. But we’ve gotta win Monday first and then take care of business Tuesday before we can get there.”
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