Alabama Basketball: Takeaways from Tide’s opening win over Louisiana Tech

Charles Bediako Will Provide Something Alabama Has Been Missing

Alabama had an outstanding season last year as they won both the SEC Regular Season and Tournament titles, while also making it to the program’s first Sweet Sixteen since 2004. However, one thing Alabama lacked last season was a center.

The Tide did not have a true center on their roster last year, they relied on power forward Jordan Bruner to fill that role, and in the end, it didn’t quite work out. However, the 2021-22 season looks like it’s going to be much different for Alabama.

Opening night for the Tide went great for several reasons, one of those reasons was because of the play of center, Charles Bediako. Bediako made an impact early as he grabbed two offensive rebounds on the same possession, and was truly filling a hole Alabama has had for quite some time, a big who is capable of giving Alabama second-chance buckets.

Nate Oats loves three-pointers, and that has been evident since he took over at Alabama, and if you have someone under the rim who is capable of grabbing missed threes and dishing it out for another opportunity, or simply just putting it right back up, it’s going to be extremely difficult to slow you down.

On Tuesday, that was exactly what happened, Bediako only played 11 minutes, but in those 11 minutes he made a pretty big impact as he gathered three rebounds (two offensive), an assist, and five points. Certainly a small sample size, and we didn’t exactly get a feel for what he might be capable of, but if he can do that in 11 minutes, I for one am very excited to see what he can do in 20+.

Bediako has the opportunity to give a huge boost to Alabama if he is used properly, we saw it in the first few possessions from Alabama on Tuesday night, and I would expect to see it more in the future.