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

Takeaways

As hyped up this game was walking into it (and despite it living up to every expectation it may have had), walking away from the game is a bit more gloomy. Alabama and Minnesota put on an extravagant show on November 25th, 2017 but both failed to quite live up to the expectations that followed them afterward. For starters, both teams would go on to lose their top-25 ranking. In fact, both teams failed to play above .500 basketball for the remainder of the year.

Minnesota would go on to miss the tournament as a whole and actually fell out of the top-10 in the Big 10 conference standings. Alabama, on the other hand, was metaphorically dragged by Sexton to a 9 seed in the NCAA Tournament (I mean literally, they made the tournament solely off of this shot from Sexton). They even scored themselves an 86-83 first-round win over Virginia Tech in the tournament, but then fell to the eventual champs, Villanova, in the second round (and in honor of this article theoretically being for Alabama fans, I’ll leave the score on that game out).

The big winner walking away from this game is none other than Collin Sexton, this article’s acclaimed “Game MVP” winner. Sexton’s name was scattered across headlines following his performance this game (and I must say, the fact he was an unranked high school player a little over a year before this game only adds another layer to this).

Sexton’s numbers not only popped off the boxscore, but his star power also popped off the television screen that day. His status as a top-pick became solidified because of this performance (while the logic behind that certainly still remains up for debate). I can speak personally to that fact; I was enamored with Sexton following this game.

I admired the poise and the “never say die” he displayed. I remember discussing his game with others around this time; the best way I could describe what I saw on November 25th, 2017: “Mamba Mentality.” Now, singing those praises rings a little bit differently today, but it was the best way to describe what I was seeing at the time. It was that kind of performance.

It’s a performance I’ll never forget as a basketball fan; and it’s a game I’ll never forget as a basketball fan. Every basketball fan has a collection of games that they can recount vividly, this will be in my collection for many years to come. Is it a technical showcase? No. Is it a super high stakes game? No. Is it even a game loaded with memorable faces? No. But it is a game straight out of “bizarro world;” straight out of some sort of basketball simulation experiment. It’s a game fans have never seen before, and will likely never see again.

For that reason, given the unfortunate circumstances we are in thanks to Coronavirus, now is the perfect time to revisit this one of a kind basketball game. I recommend, if you haven’t already, to spend some of your quarantined free time trying to watch the “3-on-5” game, if able. Even after reading this approximately 2750 word article, watching this game is worth your time. 2017’s Alabama vs Minnesota matchup was a bonafide recent classic; one that any amount of words simply just can’t do enough justice for, in my opinion.