Alabama Basketball: 5 items on the holiday wishlist for the Crimson Tide

By Dakota Cox | Dec 17, 2018

PITTSBURGH, PA - MARCH 17: Head coach Avery Johnson of the Alabama Crimson Tide reacts against the Villanova Wildcats during the first half in the second round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament at PPG PAINTS Arena on March 17, 2018 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

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Alabama Crimson Tide cheerleaders perform (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /

1. Consistency in games

Basketball has always been known as a game of runs. Alabama takes that storyline a bit too far. At their best, they look like a team who could shock their way into the Sweet Sixteen. At their worst, they seem to be in the bottom tier of the SEC. The sad thing is that they seem to have both of these ends of the spectrum in the same week. Sometimes, it’s even in the same game.

If Alabama can find a way to limit their bad spells, they won’t have upsets by teams like Georgia State. If they continue this path, they will lose too many close games to be in consideration for an at-large bid. Consistency will fix this problem.

Alabama has the depth to fix this problem. If they can find the right mixture of players to lean on when things get rough, they will overcome this obstacle. The issue is that they relied on Collin Sexton a little too much last year. Every player on the team has to take a part of the leadership role. They have the experience of adversity from last year, but they haven’t put all the pieces together.

The glue that will make it all hold together will be Kira Lewis. No one expects him to be the same player the Young Bull was, but he needs to be the same leader. He has proven himself so far, nailing a dagger three against Arizona. More plays like that will put this issue behind the team. However, they’ve simply must improve their consistency if they want to continue to win.

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