NCAA Basketball: 2021-22 Christmas wishlist for each top 25 team

12. Alabama Crimson Tide – Get better at free throw line

The Crimson Ride has one of the best offenses in the country and a star backcourt in Jaden Shackelford and Jahvon Quinerly. There’s not much that this team needs but one specific topic would be free throw shooting. It was the one thing that cost them last season against UCLA in the Sweet 16 and it has shown its ugly head in the three losses so far.

Against Iona, Alabama went just 13/25 in a four-point defeat. And against Davidson earlier this week, they were just 6/8 but it was more of a lack of getting there that didn’t help matters. Offensively, few teams can stop the guard penetration and if this team can improve on its 68% shooting from the charity stripe, that’ll just make the overall offense even harder to stop, especially in close games.

11. USC Trojans – More consistency from Boogie Ellis

Senior forward Isaiah Mobley has been fantastic now that he’s out of his brother’s shadow, averaging a team-leading 15.0 ppg and 9.6 rpg. But a big x-factor in the Trojans’ 12-0 unbeaten start has been Memphis transfer Boogie Ellis, third on the team with 11.8 ppg and 3.1 apg. He’s had some big outings early on, including 18 against Florida Gulf Coast and 19 in a win over Utah.

However, the junior guard has struggled as of late, scoring eight points or fewer in five of the last seven games. USC doesn’t have enough offense against the good teams to afford a bad night from Ellis. So if they’re going to continue being a top-10 caliber team in Pac-12 play, they’ll need the version of Ellis that was averaging around 17 ppg earlier on.