Alright, I’m going to start off today’s post by venting for a minute. The Player’s Era Festival is kind of a joke. It’s great that the players are getting NIL funds to participate, but it is so poorly organized. If you stayed up last night to watch Alabama eviscerate UNLV, then you know that truTV went nearly the entire first half without a score bug. Sure, that may be on Turner Sports, but that was the event’s chosen media partner. What you may not have known is that midway through the first half of the game (maybe! I wouldn’t know exactly how much time was left!), the organizers of the event announced the schedule for the final day:
So, an event that explicitly stated that final day matchups would be determined based on record and margin of victory from the first two days…finalized the last day of games before the previous day was even finished? And what’s worse, they gave 7th place Alabama another midnight ET tip against the 13th place Maryland Terrapins. Following their own established format, the Tide should be playing Iowa State in the 5th place game. That would give Alabama another electric matchup against a top 15 team in the country, and it sure as hell wouldn’t be a midnight tip-off. NIL is basically the only reason to be involved in this event, which is incredibly lame and just continues to underscore how college athletics are being subverted in this new era. Just accept the invite to Maui next time, Greg.
How to Watch
What: Players Era Festival Day Three: #8 Alabama (4-2) vs Maryland (5-2)
Where: MGM Grand Garden Arena – Las Vegas, NV
When: 11:00 pm CT
TV: TNT
Line: Tide -12.5
Ok, rant over. It is what it is. Alabama’s final game tonight will feel like deja vu for anybody who stayed up last night. Just keep in mind around midnight tonight that yes, another day has passed, it is not still Tuesday night (Wednesday morning?). Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I say that because Maryland is now coached by Buzz Williams, and if anybody remembers Buzzketball from years of rock-fights with Texas A&M, you should know that the Terrapins are basically just a better version of what we saw out of UNLV last night. They crash the offensive glass with everything that they’ve got, can’t really shoot, and aren’t just happy living in the mud – they want to drag you down into it with them. A game against a Buzz Williams coached team devolves into a ref show and free throw contest rather quickly. Which is exactly what we want to watch for a midnight tip-off! Feel the excitement as Maryland enters the bonus with 15 minutes left in the second half as the clock strikes 1:30 AM!
Three Keys to Victory
- Control the Pace. As with any Oats-Buzz matchup in the past, tempo will go a long way in deciding how this game plays out. If Alabama is getting up and down the court on the Terps, it’s going to be a wrap. The only thing to be determined will be the margin of victory. However, if the opposite is true, and Maryland is able to successfully turn this into a slog, they will hang around long enough to have a chance.
- Free Throws, Unfortunately. Regardless of pace of play, there will be a lot of trips to the charity stripe tonight. Maryland is 11th in the country in Free Throw Rate – it’s basically encoded into the DNA of any Buzz Williams team. So, Alabama doesn’t need to leave a ton of points at the line like they did on Monday night against Gonzaga. Make the freebies count.
- Own the Boards. Maryland – again, very much like UNLV – isn’t a very big team, but they are physical and they do attack the glass on the offensive end as a core principle of Buzzketball. Alabama dominated the Rebels on the boards last night (+20 total and +4 OREBs), which was the key factor in making the game the blowout that it was. If Alabama can have success on the glass like that again tonight, it should be another laugher in Vegas. And we’ll all be able to go to bed at a reasonable time.
Hopefully, we’ll be treated to another dominating performance from Alabama tonight. Last night, I called for the secondary scoring options to step up, and they did, as Houston Mallette and TBB were joined by true freshmen Amari Allen and London Jemison in double-figures. London actually had a career high 18 on 5/7 shooting with six free throws and five rebounds in 24 minutes. If London can continue to develop to the point that Oats can start to trust him in bigger spots – he played sparingly the previous four contests – that could be significant for this year’s team.
Anyway, happy Thanksgiving to everyone! Hope your weekend is full of family time and watching the Tide dominate. I’ll see y’all on the other side.
