Alabama Basketball: Revisiting Tide’s “3-on-5” game vs. Minnesota from 2017

The 3-on-5

I’ve grown to see some very unexpected happenings transpire during my time as a college basketball fan, especially recently. 2018’s March Madness comes to mind when UMBC became the 1st 16-seed to beat a 1-seed (sorry, Virginia) and Loyola-Chicago made the Final Four as an 11-seed. Seeing those two events come into fruition were two of my most surprising, “what even is happening?” moments. Right up there with them is the “3-on-5” game.

On the previous slide, I described how no one in the right mind could possible think Alabama had a chance to win the game. “Three guys taking on an entire team, down 54-67? Yeah right.” is a very natural response. One look at Alabama trying to defend Minnesota only confirms that notion:

I’m sure Alabama Basketball fans felt a sense of hopelessness upon seeing that in the moment; if not, then I did for them. The Crimson Tide defense essentially had no choice but to give up open jumpers on every possession with their free-styled, off-the-cuff, 3-man zone defense. Minnesota could just sit on the ball on offense, running the clock out, yet still find open looks every time.

For Alabama on offense, it was much more difficult. Sexton was getting trapped and doubled at the half-court line; whenever Smith or Norris would come with a screen, Sexton would suddenly be triple-teamed. To make matters worse, as all this is happening, the Gophers still would still have a defender camped in the paint ready to contest any shot that comes his way. Making a shot against this team should have been as hard as Capt. Sully landing in the Hudson.

But then this happened:

And then, this happened:

Despite being a writer on this, my “expertise” loses its momentum when trying to describe what exactly got into Sexton on November 25th, 2017. Because, to be honest, I have no reasonable explanation for his otherworldly performance that day. The way in which he was able to carve through five Gophers defenders like butter – or burst past every single one of them on curl routes – when most others might just flop over in defeat, was mesmerizing.

As we know now, Sexton miraculously mesmerized the Crimson Tide back into the game. With less than a minute and a half remaining in the game they only trailed Minnesota 80-83. They climbed from down 13 to only down 3 despite losing all but three of their players. It only almost got crazier too, if you can believe that. With 1:26 on the clock, Sexton managed to zoom past five Gophers defenders for one more good look to bring the lead down to 1; unfortunately, he missed the shot, and Minnesota “free threw” their way to an 84-89 victory.

One can only imagine what would have happened had Sexton’s shot (a step-back midrange jumper, for those who didn’t click the link above) to bring his team within 1, went in. The energy in the Barclays Center might have been enough to change the momentum of the game, and perhaps be enough to lend Alabama the shocking victory.

Even when ignoring that hypothetical situation, one thing remains unchanged: the “3-on-5” game was still absurdly shocking. The fans in attendance were still treated to a game that no fan might ever see again; the fans watching at home got to see an instant classic. I was lucky enough to be apart of the latter group, and I consider myself forever blessed.