Alabama Basketball: Tide impressive in exhibtion win over Georiga Tech

The Nate Oats era began on Sunday in Tuscaloosa when Alabama Basketball took on Georgia Tech in an exhibition game and Alabama looked very, very good.

Last season Alabama Basketball finished as one of the first four teams out and went onto lose in overtime of the first round in the NIT. With that Alabama decided to part ways with coach Avery Johnson and several weeks later they hired Buffalo head coach, Nate Oats to the same position.

The Crimson Tide had a lot to improve on heading into the 2019-20 season, but they also had quite a few pieces already in Tuscaloosa. With key players such as Kira Lewis jr., Herb Jones, John Petty and Alex Reese coming back, Oats joined a team with a solid base.

In addition to this, the Tide then added transfer students, James Bolden, Jahvon Quinerly and James Rojas. Unfortunately for Oats and the Tide, Rojas tore his ACL and Quinerly was denied his waiver for immediate eligibility which means Bolden is the only transfer who will suit up in 2019-20.

Luckily though they also added several new freshmen including three who were ranked within ESPN’s top 100 for the Class of 2019. Unfortunately once again, one of these players (Juwan Gary) would see his season end with an ACL injury, before it even started.

Well despite all that had happened in Alabama’s busy summer, they kicked off their season with an exhibition game against an ACC opponent on Sunday afternoon. Alabama squared off with Georgia Tech in a matchup that undoubtedly got Tide hoops fans excited.

Alabama fans saw things out of the basketball team they haven’t seen in years. They saw a team that hustled for all 40 minutes, they saw a team that could shoot threes, could shoot free throws and could also play lockdown defense.

Last season Alabama held a 44.1% field goal percentage, 66.8% field goal percentage and a 33.9% three-point percentage. On Sunday the Tide was 32-77 (41.6%) from the field, 17-37 (45.9%) from three and 12-15 (80%) from the free throw line.

Was this only one game? Sure it was and it was only an exhibition game at that, but seeing that In the first game of Nate Oats’ Alabama career, against an ACC opponent has Tide fans very expected and for good reasons.

In addition to their great shooting performance, Alabama also had 21 points off turnovers, 14 second-chance points and 40 bench points which is great to see. On the defensive end, Alabama forced 24 turnovers with an additional 10 blocks.

Oats had talked about how he wanted his Alabama team to run hard, play hard and play well on the defensive end and that is exactly what happened Sunday. Seeing players like Herb Jones diving for loose balls IN AN EXHIBITION GAME is something that we might not have seen last year and it truly shows that Nate Oats is changing the culture in Tuscaloosa.

The top performers from Sunday’s game were undoubtedly Kira Lewis jr. and Jaden Shackelford. Shackelford played a bit more than 25 minutes and went 6-10 from deep and a total of 21 points plus three steals and a block. Lewis was 8-14 from the field to go along with eight assists.

Seeing this out of a guy they didn’t necessarily expect this much out of (Shackelford) and a guy they expected exactly this out of (Lewis) is a great sign and it shows that good things could be on the horizon in Western Alabama.

Alabama went onto win this game by a final score of 93-65 and will officially kick their season off on November 5th when Penn visits Tuscaloosa.