Alabama Basketball: Takeaways from victory over Jacksonville State
![Alabama guard Jaden Shackelford (5) drives hard past South Carolina guard AJ Lawson (0) in Coleman Coliseum Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]Alabama Vs South Carolina Sec Basketball](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_fill,w_1080,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/shape%2Fcover%2Fsport%2F72cb4bb315576a7c14ef3a356254a1c73056582a043fc4d55c78a3dacb3df200.jpg "Alabama guard Jaden Shackelford (5) drives hard past South Carolina guard AJ Lawson (0) in Coleman Coliseum Saturday, Feb. 29, 2020. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.]Alabama Vs South Carolina Sec Basketball")
Alabama has Elite Returners with Jones, Shackelford, and Petty
Coming into the season Alabama knew John Petty Jr., Herb Jones, and Jaden Shackelford were going to be key for their success in 2020-21, and in game one, all three showed up and impressed for the Crimson Tide.
Both Herb Jones and Jaden Shackelford recorded double-doubles as Jones went for 12 points and 12 rebounds, a steal, and two blocks and Shackelford went for 18 points, 11 rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
In addition to Jones and Shackelford impressing in the first game of the season, Petty had a big game as well as he went for 14 points, six rebounds, an assist, and two steals.
If Alabama gets 44 points, 29 rebounds, three assists, five steals, and two blocks out of Petty, Jones, and Shackelford alone, it’s going to be very hard for them to lose. Granted these three did this against Jacksonville State, but the point remains.
Alabama has four elite scorers with Petty, Jones, Shackelford, and Quinerly, which could be huge as the season progresses and the Tide goes up against the more difficult competition.
Aside from the fact that he recorded a double-double, Jones hit a three which is the most impressive thing he did all night. Over the course of the 715 minutes Herb Jones played in 2019-20, he attempted only 14 total threes, hitting only ONE of them, on Wednesday night Jones attempted two threes, making one of them.
That is just over 14% of the total threes he attempted from last season and is 100% of the total threes he made from all of last season. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, but if Jones kept this up and played in every game this season, he will attempt 54 threes in the regular season, making 27 of them, that is almost four times the attempts from what he had last season and 27 times the amount of made threes he had from last season.
Like I said, probably not realistic, but that just puts it into perspective for you of how rare it is for Herb Jones to shoot threes, and actually make them.