Alabama Basketball: 3 keys to beating San Diego State in Sweet 16 matchup

Alabama Basketball has had a pretty easy run so far in the NCAA Tournament. In the first round, the 1-seed Crimson Tide took down the 16-seed Texas A&M-CC by 21 points, and the only point of concern to come out of the game for Alabama was that Brandon Miller went scoreless. Miller has been nursing a groin injury since the SEC Tournament. Alabama took advantage of the match-up and the rest of the team stepped up to fill Miller’s scoring load.

In its second-round match-up Alabama defeated Maryland by 22 points, and in doing so put to bed any concerns over Brandon Miller’s health. The Tide star freshman played a team-high 34 minutes, scoring 19 points and grabbing 7 rebounds. Alabama led by 5 at the half but showed why they are the top seed in the tournament when they took over in the second half, quickly pushing the lead to double digits and never looking back.

The Tide will face their first serious test of the tournament in their Sweet 16 match-up against San Diego State, the 5-seed in the South Region. The Aztecs, winners of the Mountain West Conference, survived a tough first-round game against Charleston, winning by 6. They followed that up in the second round knocking off upset-minded Furman by 23 points. In both tournament games San Diego State has both of their opponents to under 60 points.

This season, Alabama has been one of the most consistent teams in the country and has continued to dominate in the NCAA Tournament. If the Tide want to continue their impressive run they will need to continue to play well and not take any match-up lightly. Here are three things Alabama has to do well to take down San Diego State and advance to the Elite Eight.