Alabama
How Alabama plans to set the tempo against Saint Mary’s
CLEVELAND — Alabama will face a clash of styles in its second-round game of the NCAA Tournament. The No. 2 seed Crimson Tide will face No. 7 seed Saint Mary’s, a team that plays slow and runs a methodical offensive system.
The Gaels rank No. 360 out of 364 Division I teams in adjusted tempo, according to KenPom.com. Saint Mary’s averages 61.6 possessions per 40 minutes. Comparatively, Alabama averages 75, which makes it the fastest-running team in the country.
“We can’t get frustrated with their slow pace,” Alabama coach Nate Oats told reporters Saturday. “We may be lucky to get over 70 possessions. We’ve had multiple games this year where it’s been 80 possession games in 40 minutes. They’re probably comfortable playing closer to 60 possessions in a game sometimes. They’re a low-possession team. They’re very methodical, they’re very deliberate, and they’re very good at what they do. What they do, they do really well.”
Oats isn’t planning on making any major defensive adjustments to try and speed the Gaels up in Sunday’s matchup. Saint Mary’s doesn’t run an overly complex offensive style but is disciplined in creating the looks it wants. Oats don’t want to gamble by pressing or running traps just to set the tempo, only to give up easy layups and high-percentage shots.
The key instead for Alabama is not getting frustrated by the Gaels’ style and imposing its own on offense by forcing difficult shots and limiting Saint Mary’s to one look at the basket per possession. Alabama nearly lost to a much smaller Robert Morris team after it allowed 16 offensive rebounds. Oats has driven the point home to his players that that cannot be the case again if the Tide wants to have success Sunday.
“If we want to win, that’s like the biggest factor,” forward Mouhamed Dioubate said. “Finishing the possessions out strong, limiting their offensive rebounds. Us also getting offensive rebounds ourselves. A lot of second-chance opportunities. I think that’s going to be the biggest factor tomorrow.”
Discipline has been another major point of emphasis during the shorthanded scout of Saint Mary’s. The Gaels can frustrate their opponents with their methodical offense and elite rebounding, making defensive communication key for Alabama to avoid the lapses it had late in possessions against Robert Morris.
“You’ve got to do a lot of talking because they’re going to get down to late shot clock situations sometimes and you’ve just got to — when their guards are getting back, we’ve got to send our guards to go in and help their bigs,” guard Labaron Philon said. “That’s something Coach Oats has been preaching all day today and last night. Just doing a lot of film and just watching it, rebounding tactics, and see what they like to because they’re a really good offensive rebounding team.”
Alabama’s depth in both the front and backcourt will also be key in establishing the presence it needs in the paint to get rebounds to set the tempo by running in transition. The Tide’s bevy of frontcourt weapons played well on the offensive end against Robert Morris. Grant Nelson being available for all 40 minutes will also be a huge boost to help elevate Alabama’s play on the glass.
“We can get into our depth, and we may need it because they’ve got some frontcourt depth,” Oats said. “They kind of start with… [Paulius] Murauskas, No.23, they start with him, very skilled forward, but they then go big with — their starting center moves to the 4 and they bring in a 7-foot-1 guy. So our frontcourt is going to have to be good, deep because we’re going to have to stay fresh on those guys to be able to rebound with them.”
Oats doesn’t plan to adjust its defensive style to try and scramble Saint Mary’s on Sunday. Alabama has shown it can play its syle against elite slow-paced teams — namely Houston, which ranks No. 359 in adjusted tempo and lost to Alabama in November — and aims to do the same Sunday. The Gaels are going to stick to their game and Alabama’s best counter punch is getting out in transition on offense by being strong on the glass, staying disciplined defensively and scoring efficiently on offense in a game that may not end in the usual high-possession count that Alabama prefers.
“If we can limit them to one tough shot as much as possible and then off the defensive rebound, get out, and we will run,” Oats said. “Everybody in the country knows we run. But we’ve got to make sure that when we run, we get quality shots, too, because this isn’t going to be an 80-possession game. That’s just not how a game with Saint Mary’s is going to work. They’re good. They’re tough. But, shoot, we’re down to the round of 32, and most of the teams left, all the teams left are good.”
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The No. 13 Alabama Crimson Tide host the Texas Longhorns Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. The Crimson Tide have four losses this season, all have come against teams ranked inside the top 11.
Texas vs. Alabama will air on ESPN, and streams live on DIRECTV (free trial).
What: Men’s college basketball regular season
Who: Texas Longhorns vs. No. 13 Alabama Crimson Tide
When: Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026
Where: Coleman Coliseum, Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV: ESPN
Live stream: DIRECTV (free trial), fuboTV (free trial)
Texas is 3-4 in its past seven games, and doesn’t have a win over any currently ranked teams. A road win over Alabama would help its cause in the national ranking and the SEC standings. Alabama hasn’t lost to an unranked team this season, and a second straight would hurt their hopes for a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Here’s a recent college basketball story via the Associated Press:
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tyler Tanner scored 23 of his career-high 29 points in the second half and No. 11 Vanderbilt remained undefeated by beating 13th-ranked Alabama 96-90 on Wednesday night.
The Commodores (15-0, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) extended their best start since winning 16 straight games to open the 2007-08 season. This is only the second time in the program’s 124-year history that Vanderbilt has won its first 15.
Vanderbilt hadn’t played a ranked opponent until this game, also the first here between two top-15 teams since Jan. 5, 1974. Then-No. 10 Vanderbilt beat the 14th-ranked Crimson Tide in that game on its way to splitting the SEC championship with Alabama.
Vanderbilt also beat Alabama for the first time at Memorial Gym since 2018, ending a five-game skid against the Tide.
Duke Miles had 19 points and five steals before fouling out, and four other Commodores finished with at least four fouls. Tyler Nickel scored 12 points while Devin McGlockton and AK Okereke, who also fouled out, each had 10.
Tanner, a sophomore guard, added seven assists and four steals. He was 12 of 15 at the free-throw line — all in the second half.
Alabama (11-4, 1-1) had its four-game winning streak snapped in a game featuring 63 combined fouls, with two technicals on the Crimson Tide.
Amari Allen led Alabama with a season-high 25 points. Leading scorer Labaron Philon Jr. added 18 but checked out with 16:06 to go and never returned. Aden Holloway had 22 points and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. scored 13.
Fouls called left and right turned the first 10 minutes of the second half into ugly ball, and Alabama never led by more than four. Allen hit two free throws that pulled the Tide to 59-58 with 12:14 left.
Vanderbilt went on a 16-4 spurt that included a technical foul on Alabama coach Nate Oats with 8:39 to go. Tanner hit both free throws off the technical, then Mike James knocked down a 3-pointer for a 74-63 lead. The Tide made it interesting but got no closer than 94-90.
Up next
Alabama hosts Texas on Saturday.
Vanderbilt hosts LSU on Saturday.
Can I bet on the game?
Yes, you can bet on the game from your phone in New York State, and we’ve compiled some of the best introductory offers to help navigate your first bets from BetMGM, FanDuel, DraftKings, Bet365 and more.
The Alabama Crimson Tide are coming off a tough loss to Vanderbilt, but at 11-4 overall, they’re still in a great spot this season. On Saturday, they’ll host the Texas Longhorns, who are still seeking their first SEC win of the 2025-26 college basketball campaign.
Texas lost to Mississippi State in overtime and then lost by 14 points to Tennessee this past week. The oddsmakers now have them set as significant underdogs in this game, meaning a 0-3 start in conference play is likely. Let’s dive into it.
Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook
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Moneyline
Total
Dailyn Swain is leading Texas in points (15.6), rebounds (7.1), assists (3.5), and steals (1.8) per game. You’d be hard-pressed to find another team in college basketball where the same player leads the team in all four of those statistics. Alabama will have to shut him down to win and cover in this game.
The key factor in any Alabama game is how its opponent defends the perimeter. The Crimson Tide is primarily a three-point shooting team, which means the ability for their opponent to defend the three-ball plays a big role in how the game turns out.
Unfortunately, the Longhorns rank 223rd in the country in opponent three-point field goal percentage. They allow teams to shoot 34.4% from beyond the arc, which means Alabama, especially with the Crimson Tide being on their home court, has a chance to shoot the lights out on Saturday.
I’m going to lay the points on Alabama as a big favorite.
Pick: Alabama -13.5 (-110) via FanDuel
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Named after a famous 1940s Bullock County moonshiner who eventually served an 18-month federal prison sentence at Maxwell Air Force Base for producing illegal liquor, the Clyde May’s whiskey company was founded in Union Springs in 2001 by the bootlegger’s son, Kenny May.
Though the whiskey it produced was actually distilled in Kentucky, it was supposedly made using Conecuh Ridge spring water that was trucked there from Alabama.
In 2004, the Democrat-controlled Legislature approved a resolution naming the company’s “Conecuh Ridge Alabama Fine Whiskey” as the “Official State Spirit” of Alabama.
Gov. Bob Riley, a teetotaler who did not think the state should have an “official whiskey,” vetoed the resolution, but Democrat lawmakers quickly overrode his veto and allowed the resolution to take effect.
Shortly thereafter, in December of 2004, state liquor agents arrested Kenny May for selling liquor without a license, possessing excessive quantities of liquor in a dry county, and selling alcohol to a minor. He pled guilty to the charges.
Alabama’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board immediately moved to revoke Conecuh Ridge’s distribution license, meaning that once stores sold out of their existing stock, the state’s official spirit could no longer be sold in Alabama.
May’s stock was held in trust pending the outcome of his trial. Attorney Alva Lambert assumed interim leadership of the company.
After May entered his guilty plea, the Alabama House of Representatives moved to repeal the declaration of Conecuh Ridge as Alabama’s “Official State Spirit,” but the reversal legislation never passed the Alabama Senate. It remains the “Official State Spirit” today.
Kenny May passed away in 2016.
Owned and operated by a company based in New York today, Clyde May’s whiskey and bourbon is sold nationwide.
It’s flagship bottle is marketed as “Alabama-style” whiskey, and dried apples are added to the liquor as it ages in barrels, which imparts an apple/cinnamon flavor to the finished product.
Some like it, and some hate it, but all can agree the whiskey carries a fascinating political pedigree.
This story originally appeared in The Art of Alabama Politics, an outlet dedicated to the the wild, weird, and wonderful history of Alabama politics.
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