Alabama vs Gonzaga: 2021-22 key storylines for top-20 matchup

Can Bediako guard Timme?

Charles Bediako is a 7’0 and 235-pound freshman center that was a former five-star prospect in the 2021 recruiting class, ranked in the top-20 overall. But while he has started all seven games so far, averaging 7.1 ppg, 4.9 rpg, and 1.7 bpg in around 20 minutes played, Bediako saw his fewest amount of action against Iona and Miami, teams with actual frontcourt players.

The freshman is very raw overall offensively and is somewhat skinny, having a size disadvantage against someone like Drew Timme of Gonzaga. And when it comes to pure skillset, there’s no debate. The junior big for the Bulldogs have dropped 20+ of many talented and experienced bigs and this is honestly a mismatch on paper.

Here’s the problem – Bediako is the lone rotational player with any kind of size to guard Timme. If he’s not the answer, Alabama could wind up looking like Texas, who also didn’t have a positional answer for the Texan Bulldog. That ended up with Timme going or a career-high 37 points and an easy win.

Other options on the roster include sliding Furman power forward transfer Noah Gurley to the five-spot, or playing Keon Ambrose-Hylton and Alex Tchikou spot minutes in this game. But since neither offers much offensively, it could limit what Alabama does on offense.

The Tide will have to hope that Bediako at least makes Timme work for it because when Gonzaga gets it going from inside without much issue, they’ll be on pace to drop 90+ points and en route to an easy victory. Getting him in foul trouble on defense may be their best hope of stopping Timme, or at least get him off the floor.