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Mandel’s Final Thoughts: Alabama got its act together and looks Playoff bound … again

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Mandel’s Final Thoughts: Alabama got its act together and looks Playoff bound … again


And now, 20 Final Thoughts from Week 11, in which Louisiana’s governor imported a rogue tiger from Florida to show off on the field before the Alabama game. (Yes, this really happened.)

1. Nick Saban won so many trophies in his 17 seasons at Alabama, it’s easy to forget all the times we thought no really, this time the dynasty is crumbling. Like when the Tide got trucked by Ohio State’s Ezekiel Elliott in a semifinal. Or lost to Ole Miss in consecutive seasons. Or gave up 52 points to Tennessee in 2022. Or, just last season, when they lost at home to Texas.

That team, like so many before it, got its act together in time to reach another College Football Playoff. And now, Kalen DeBoer’s first Alabama squad — the one that infamously lost at Vanderbilt and then at Tennessee — may be about to do the same.

2. In a de facto CFP elimination game, No. 11 Alabama (7-2, 4-2) went to rainy Death Valley and unleashed Jalen Milroe on No. 15 LSU (6-3, 3-2) in a 42-13 beatdown. Milroe ran 12 times for 185 yards and four touchdowns, including a 39-yard score on his team’s first drive and a 72-yard gut punch to go up 35-6. Alabama racked up 311 yards on the ground, and the Tide’s swarming defense did the rest. Jihaad Campbell’s strip-sack of Garrett Nussmeier allowed Milroe to put Alabama up 21-6 before halftime, and Deontae Lawson’s interception in the end zone on LSU’s first drive of the third quarter opened the floodgates.

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This was the best Alabama looked since the first half of its 41-34 win against Georgia on Sept. 28. The Tide still have no margin for error, but with games against Mercer, 5-5 Oklahoma and 3-6 Auburn, they might not need it.

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3. The story of Brian Kelly’s first three seasons has been tantalizing teases (beating Alabama and reaching the SEC title game in 2022, Jayden Daniels’ Heisman run last year) and frustrating setbacks (season-opening collapses against Florida State and USC, imploding in the fourth quarter at Texas A&M two weeks ago). This debacle fits on its own shelf. Getting blown out at home to your biggest rival is never ideal for any coach, but this one comes in LSU’s first Alabama game since longtime nemesis Saban’s retirement. And now this will be Kelly’s third straight 9-3 regular season (at best).

Kelly left Notre Dame three years ago largely because he felt being at LSU gave him a better chance at winning a national championship. But first, he’s got to make a Playoff. Something his former school has a better shot at this season.

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4. Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told reporters last December that his disgust following the Rebels’ 52-17 loss at Georgia last season spurred the program’s portal/NIL shopping spree for big, athletic defensive linemen. As of a few weeks ago, it looked like Ole Miss might have spent all that money for naught, having dropped from preseason No. 6 to the bottom of the top 20.

On Saturday, though, Jared Ivey, Princely Umanmielen, Walter Nolen and standout Suntarine Perkins (not a transfer) keyed an Ole Miss D-line that overwhelmed second-ranked Georgia’s offense in a program-defining 28-10 win. It was Kiffin’s first top-five win in five tries there, and the highest-ranked team the Rebels have ever beaten in Oxford.

Ole Miss (8-2, 4-2) is down to just 4-5 Florida and 2-8 Mississippi State on its schedule. Whether it gets back in the top 12 on Tuesday, a 10-win Ole Miss team is likely to get an at-large berth.

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5. Georgia (7-2, 5-2) has now played four current Top 25 teams — three of them on the road — and it shows. The Dawgs look beat up. They committed three second-half turnovers when the game was still close. Quarterback Carson Beck (20-of-31 for 186 yards, two TDs, 0 INTs) was largely ineffective, and banged-up running back Trevor Etienne was limited to six carries. Now they have to turn around and host No. 7 Tennessee, which boasts its own dominant defensive front.

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But if Georgia wins, it probably clinches a CFP bid. It would be the Dawgs’ third Top 25 win, on top of its season-opening rout of current No. 23 Clemson and Oct. 19 smackdown at No. 5 Texas. Several CFP contenders, including Texas itself, don’t even have one.

Lose at home, though, and the preseason national title favorite might miss the Playoff entirely. I say “might” because we’ve never done this before, so perhaps wise for now to avoid absolutes.

6. In the first season of the SEC’s 16-team configuration, half the league — Texas A&M (5-1), Tennessee (5-1), Texas (4-1), Georgia (5-2), Ole Miss (4-2), Alabama (4-2), LSU (3-2) and Missouri (3-2) — have either one or two conference losses. There are 28 possible championship game combinations across that group. (A trio of three-loss teams are still mathematically alive, but it breaks my brain to consider that.)

No. 24 Missouri managed to remain in the mix with a miracle finish against Oklahoma (5-5, 1-5). With 30 seconds left in a tie game, Mizzou’s Triston Newson stripped a scrambling Jackson Arnold. Zion Young picked up the fumble and ran it back 17 yards for a touchdown to win it 30-23.

7. Committee chairman Warde Manuel said last week that the “eye test” led it to rank Miami No. 4, a curious comment given the Canes had been playing with fire much of the season. It finally blew up Saturday, when Georgia Tech (6-4, 4-3) ran for 271 yards while throwing for just 99 in a 28-23 upset of the previously unbeaten Canes (9-1, 5-1). Cam Ward (25-of-39, 38 yards, three TDs, 0 INTs) was once again asked to do it all, but Romello Height’s strip-sack of Ward with 1:48 left sealed the outcome.

One loss doesn’t affect Miami’s CFP hopes, though it’s no longer guaranteed a spot in the ACC title game due to some hazy tiebreakers. SMU (8-1, 5-0) is now alone in first, and Clemson (7-2, 6-1) is a half-game up on Miami. It was, however, a costly blow for Ward’s Heisman hopes. He’s lacking a signature win, and he’s not going to get one against Wake Forest or Syracuse.

8. No. 8 Indiana’s (10-0, 7-0) dream season reached another milestone Saturday, in its closest call to date. Michigan, down 17-3 at halftime, got as close as 17-15 in the fourth quarter before the Hoosiers held on 20-15. This marks Indiana’s first-ever 10-win season, no small feat for a school that’s been playing the sport for 126 years. The two programs’ year-over-year reversals have been so dramatic — Michigan from 15-0 to 5-5, IU from 3-9 to 10-0 — that it’s now seen as a disappointment that the Hoosiers failed to cover the two-touchdown spread.

Indiana now has an off week before the defining game of its season: a Nov. 23 trip to No. 2 Ohio State (8-1, 5-1).

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9. The first Big 12 edition of the BYU-Utah Holy War produced one of the rivalry’s wildest endings. On a last-ditch BYU fourth down with 1:35 left, it appeared Utah, up 21-19, sacked Cougars quarterback Jake Retzlaff at his own 1-yard-line to put the game away. But a defensive holding penalty gave BYU new life. Two plays later, Retzlaff threw a 30-yard strike to Chase Roberts to flip the field, eventually setting up a 44-yard Will Ferrin field goal to give the Cougars (9-0, 6-0) their first win at Rice-Eccles Stadium since 2006. It was the second time in No. 9 BYU’s last three games that it came back and won in the last 10 seconds.

Kalani Sitake’s team is enjoying a charmed season, and its luck may run out at some point. But the hated Utes (4-5, 1-5) are having whatever might be deemed the opposite of a charmed season.

10. No. 20 Colorado (7-2, 5-1) took an important step toward the Big 12 title game, winning 41-27 at Texas Tech (6-4, 4-3). While Shedeur Sanders (30-of-43 for 293 yards, three TDs, 0 INTs) and Travis Hunter (nine catches, 99 yards, one TD) were their usual productive selves, defensive tackle Amari McNeill stole the show. In the fourth quarter alone, he had 1.5 sacks (Colorado had six on the night) and stuffed Tech star Tahj Brooks on a fourth-and-goal at the 1.

11. The Buffs now control their path to the conference title game thanks to Kansas (3-6, 2-4) handing No. 17 Iowa State (7-2, 4-2) its second conference loss with an out-of-nowhere 45-36 win. The Jayhawks at one point led 31-13. Lance Leipold’s preseason Top 25 team lost five straight at one point but has since won two of three, with a last-second road loss to Kansas State in between. KU will have a chance to mess up someone else’s season when it hosts Colorado in two weeks.

12. Congrats to No. 1 Oregon (10-0, 7-0), which likely became the first-ever team to clinch a berth in the 12-team Playoff. (Again, I’m avoiding absolutes.) The Ducks got to the all-important 10-win mark with a 39-18 rout of Maryland (4-5, 1-5), and unlike 10-0 Indiana, they already have their signature win against Ohio State. Defensive end Jordan Burch was everywhere, with two pass breakups, a strip-sack that teammate Brandon Johnson returned for a touchdown and, most notably, a 36-yard run on a fake punt.

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Also: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel made history, becoming the all-time FBS career leader in total touchdowns on a 3-yard pass to offensive lineman Gernorris Wilson. The sixth-year senior now has 180 across three schools, surpassing Case Keenum’s 178.

13. I’m mostly numb at this point to Florida State’s ineptitude — but please stop and consider just how extraordinarily the Noles have deteriorated in a year. No. 10 Notre Dame (8-1) blasted them 52-3 in a prime-time NBC event, dropping Mike Norvell’s team — which, reminder, finished 13-1 last season — to 1-9. I can’t think of anything like it in my career, save for when Southern Miss plummeted from 12-2 in 2011 to 0-12 in 2012 after coach Larry Fedora left for North Carolina. His replacement, Ellis Johnson, did not make it to Year 2.

But in this case, the coach who got FSU to 13 wins is the same one overseeing this otherworldly debacle. The eventual “30 for 30” on this team should be fascinating.

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14. In 1984, future NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter set Ohio State freshman receiving records with 41 catches for 648 yards and eight TDs. None of the 11 first-round receivers to come through Columbus since then did better. His records stood for 40 years until a phenom named Jeremiah Smith arrived from South Florida.

With six catches for 87 yards and a score in No. 2 Ohio State’s 45-0 shutout of Purdue (1-8, 0-6), Smith now holds all of those records, with 45 catches for 765 yards and nine TDs. And he’s got at least another four games to go.

15. Fresh off an idle week, Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers regained his early-season form, throwing for 333 yards and five touchdowns in the fifth-ranked Horns (8-1, 4-1) 49-17 rout of undermanned Florida (4-5, 2-4). Texas had allowed 11 sacks in its previous two games against Georgia and Vanderbilt but only gave up one this week on its first series.

Florida, down to a third-string walk-on quarterback, has more pain ahead with games against Ole Miss and LSU. AD Scott Stricklin’s announcement this week that third-year coach Billy Napier will retain his job means Gators fans will have to grin and bear it.

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16. Virginia coach Tony Elliott got the biggest victory of his three-year tenure when the Cavaliers (5-4, 3-3) went to No. 23 Pittsburgh (7-2, 3-2) and won 24-19. Virginia, which won just six games combined in Elliott’s first two seasons, came in on a three-game losing streak and looking less and less likely to end its five-year bowl drought. It still faces a daunting final stretch, visiting Notre Dame, hosting No. 13 SMU (8-1, 5-0) and closing at rival Virginia Tech (5-5, 3-3), but beating a ranked foe may help build confidence.

17. The last time Army was 9-0, Doc Blanchard and Glenn Davis — Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside — led the Cadets to the 1945 AP national championship. Army got back there Saturday with a 14-3 win over North Texas (5-4, 2-3), its second straight week holding an opponent without a touchdown. Mean Green quarterback Chandler Morris came in as the national leader in passing yards at 359.1 per game but was 24-of-37 for 214 yards with two picks against the Black Knights.

After a week off, Army will play its most significant non-Navy game in decades when it faces No. 10 Notre Dame at Yankee Stadium. Worth noting, that 1945 team faced the Irish at the old Yankee Stadium and won 48-0.

18. UCLA to its credit has not only salvaged its season after a 1-5 start but can realistically eye a bowl berth in head coach DeShaun Foster’s debut season. The Bruins (4-5, 3-4) notched their third straight conference win Friday, 20-17 over visiting Iowa (6-4, 4-3). The Big Ten’s 18th-ranked rushing offense rose up to gain 211 yards (125 from junior T.J. Harden). Meanwhile, UCLA’s defense held Iowa star Kaleb Johnson to a season-low 49 yards.

UCLA plays another Friday night game next week at Washington, before hosting USC and Fresno State. It’d be something if the Bruins got bowl-eligible before the Trojans.

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19. Your weekly Ashton Jeanty update: The Boise State star notched his fourth 200-yard game of the season, rushing 34 times for 209 yards and three TDs in the 12th-ranked Broncos’ (8-1, 5-0) 28-21 win over Nevada (3-8, 0-5). Jeanty is now at 1,734 yards for the season and averages 179.8 yards in conference play. At that pace, he’ll finish the regular season (including the conference championship game) with 2,453 yards. That would be No. 2 all-time, behind only the great Barry Sanders (in 11 games) in 1988.

20. In the craziest game of the day, Jacksonville State quarterback Tyler Huff threw a 49-yard Hail Mary to Cam Vaughn with no time left that should have beaten Louisiana Tech 38-37 — except that Garrison Rippa missed the extra point. Fortunately for Rippa, the Gamecocks (6-3, 5-0) pulled it out in overtime, 44-37, to remain in first place.

Meanwhile, in an epic battle at the other end of the standings, UTEP (2-8, 2-5) went to double overtime to beat FBS newcomer Kennesaw State (1-8, 1-4), 43-35. Which itself bailed out kicker Buzz Flabiano for missing a 40-yarder at the end of overtime.

Forget the CFP race. Clearly, we need to start watching more Conference USA football.

(Photo of Jalen Milroe: Aric Becker / ISI Photos / Getty Images)

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Kalen DeBoer says kicker Graham Nicholson has found his rhythm at Alabama

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Kalen DeBoer says kicker Graham Nicholson has found his rhythm at Alabama


Kalen DeBoer calls them “gimmie kicks.” The head coach’s philosophy has always been to give his kickers as many opportunities from short-distance attempts early in the season in order to get them in a rhythm and build up their confidence.

That’s the plan anyway. Alabama’s big-play offense prevented that transition for Miami-Ohio transfer Graham Nicholson in his first season with the Crimson Tide this year.

Nicholson, who earned the Lou Groza Award last season, didn’t even attempt a field goal in Alabama’s first two games. He pushed his first attempt wide right from 46 yards out at Wisconsin in Week 3. After hitting a 28-yarder against Georgia two weeks later, he didn’t get another attempt until the Week 8 loss against Tennessee, where he went 1 of 2, coming up short on a 54-yard try before hitting the target from 35 yards out.

Since then Nicholson has been perfect, connecting on two field goals against Missouri as well as one last week against Mercer. Now it seems like the graduate kicker is finally finding his rhythm.

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“Getting that first one is hard, and it took him a long time to get that first opportunity,” DeBoer said of Nicholson during his weekly radio show on Wednesday night. “It isn’t his fault. We were just scoring touchdowns and the opportunities didn’t present themselves the same way.

“He has been just steady since Day 1. We see him every day in practice. I think he’s getting more and more comfortable in our stadium in particular.”

DeBoer called the two kicks Nicholson made a Missouri “critical to Alabama’s 34-0 win over the Tigers. The first of which came from a season-long 47 yards out as the kicker helped the Tide put points on the board to cap off the game’s opening possession. From there, Nicholson helped a struggling Alabama offense get some momentum by hitting a 39-yarder to put the Tide up 6-0 late in the second quarter.

“Thought [the 47-yarder] was a big kick for us right there to get three points on the board,” DeBoer said. “And then he came back and did it again.”

While kicking isn’t DeBoer’s expertise, he said he still makes an effort to monitor his kicker’s reps during practice in order to get a good feel of what affects them and what went wrong during misses.

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“A kicker might miss a kick in practice, and if you really weren’t paying attention, you might just think it was him,” DeBoer explained. “Well, it might have been the snap or the hold or something else. There’s other moving parts to that part. It might not solely fall on the kicker missing in practice, and you can quickly some thoughts about, ‘Well, he’s not in his groove right now,’ when really there were other factors that played a role in it.”

As for Nicholson, DeBoer believes he’s finally found his rhythm and should be able to return to his award-winning form to close out the season.

“He’s mentally strong,” DeBoer said. “He’s got a lot that he’s done in the past that he goes back to that gives him the confidence he has. You still got a new place and you gotta kind of reprove yourself. He’s done a good job of doing that.”

Last season, Nicholson made 27 of 28 field-goal attempts and 35 of 37 extra-point tries. That included an NCAA-record streak of 25 straight made field goals. Through 10 games at Alabama, he is 5 of 7 on field goals and has made all 48 of his extra-point tries.



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Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's win over Illinois

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Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's win over Illinois


Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama’s win over Illinois

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters after the Crimson Tide’s 100-87 win over No. 25 Illinois on Wednesday. No. 8 Alabama bounced back from a loss to Purdue in strong fashion, taking down its first Power Five opponent of the season and gaining some momentum ahead of a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada for the Players Era Festival tournament.

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Here’s everything Oats said after the game.

Opening statement

“That’s a big win. Illinois is good. They’re talented. Got multiple guys that are gonna end up playing in the NBA. They’ve got length everywhere. They beat us on the boards, so we’ve got to get significantly better on the glass. But I thought our guys did a much better job defensively. We had a few things we had to get cleaned up, and I thought we played pretty hard. I thought we had a group in there to close the game out that played pretty well on defense and got to the rim on offense.

“There’s lots of positives. We shot the ball well from some guys. I think Grant got his confidence going, obviously, early. Labaron has been playing really hard, almost had a triple-double with 16, nine and seven. I think the ball moved a lot better. Twenty-three assists to only seven turnovers was big. So there’s a lot of positives, but a lot of stuff to improve on still.”

On Mark Sears being held scoreless, sitting the final 11:27

“He was great on the bench. He was struggling. There’s a lot of pressure on him, obviously, being a home-state kid that came back. He’s the preseason player of the year, and he’s trying to do well. Teams are gearing their defense toward him. He had some good looks tonight; they just didn’t go. I took him out to kind of let him get his head together a little bit, and I tried to put him back in and he just said, ‘Look, they’re playing well.’ “I’ll be honest with you, it’s similar to what Herb Jones has done before. We’ve had some really good players here that have just kind of been unselfish enough and want to win bad enough to just say, ‘Hey, let the guys go. They’re playing really well. Leave them in.’ So that’s what I did. I tried to put him back in the middle of that 11 minutes, but he said leave these guys. They were playing pretty well. He was right, so we left them in, and they went on a run and won it. I’m sure he’ll bounce back against Houston.”

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On Alabama’s bench

“Obviously, Holloway shooting it like he did helps a lot with the bench. Derrion, Aiden Sherrell kind of showed what they’re capable of. They’re starting to both get a little more comfortable. Dioubate threw in another three for us, and I think Jarin’s got a huge jump he can still make this year. We’re deep. Everybody knew we were deep. We needed the bench tonight with how Mark maybe struggled shooting it a little bit. Holloway came in and helped us out a little bit. So I thought it was big. I think our bench will probably give us pretty good production most of the year because there’s going to be quite a few guys that would be starting at most places coming off the bench, so we’ll get pretty good bench production most of the year.”

On Clifford Omoruyi avoiding foul trouble doing forward

“He picks up some silly ones where he gets out of position and kind of comes in late. So we gotta keep working with him on some of that. Him being in a drop like we’ve got him in, he didn’t really play it like that at Rutgers. So he’s just got to continue to get better. I thought we’ve seen him get better and better in the drop. I think when Grant went to the five and kind of got in the drop, he had a blocked shot. I think he’s done a little more, so you can see he’s a little more experienced with it. So we just got to keep working with him on that and then keep working. But like you said, I mean, he was plus-14 when he was in the game, played 15 minutes. We were plus-14 with them in there. So we gotta try to keep him out of foul trouble so we can keep him in the game a little bit longer.”

On responding from the Purdue loss

“It was big. We needed to play against a high-major team, a good one, a top-25 team and be able to get a win. And I didn’t even think we played great in a lot of areas. I mean, you look at the offensive rebounds we gave up. We didn’t shoot it particularly well from some of our better shooters, and we were still able to score 100 points. We did take care of the ball a lot better, and I thought our defense improved.

“So I think we need to continue to see little things improve and do well and just keep building on it because Houston’s obviously really tough, really good. Giving up 14 O boards – and Illinois’ very good. They’ve got length everywhere. They go to the O boards. They’re one of the better rebounding teams in the country. But they’re not at the same level as Houston’s going to be on the offensive glass. So we’re going to really pick up on our defensive rebounding. Purdue kind of got to us there, Illinois got to us. So we’re going to have to make a huge point of emphasis on that going forward.”

On if he’s surprised at Labaron Philos’s progress

“From what I thought when you go back to last spring when he opened his recruitment up and we took him, yes, I’m surprised from then. But if you ask me after the summer, after watching what he did in June, July, August, he came in and established himself as one of the best guards in the program right out of the gate in the month of June. So I think he came in competing. I mean, he had the right mindset coming in, though.

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“Like when he opened his recruitment up, he kind of made the point, I think one of the statements might have been, if I’m not going to play much – because Kansas took a lot of transfer guards when he signed – if I’m not going to play much, I’d rather be home in Alabama at Alabama if I’m not going to play much. I said, ‘Look, just come in and work hard. We’ll see what you can earn.’ So he kind of just came in expecting nothing, had to earn everything, and when you feel like you gotta earn everything, that’s when I think you start playing your best.

“It’s why we don’t ever promise anybody minutes, starting spots, anything around here. I think you make everybody come in and earn it. And also, you get guys like Labaron that blossom. And he’s kind of earned from summer, fall practice. He’s one of our hardest competitors in practice every day. He’s winning the blue-collar in practice. He won the Hard Hat tonight. He just makes a bunch of tough plays and just loses himself in the game. I don’t think he’s worried about how many points he scores, about how many times he touches it, how many minutes he’s played. Just if he’s in, he’s playing hard, playing the right way, and it shows.”

On Aden Holloway’s contributions

“We didn’t play fast enough against Purdue. One of the clips that we did play fast enough was him. He got downhill, scored a layup. We just said we want to keep the pace going. I think it’s easier to play fast when you got three of those four guards in. I thought he pushed the pace tonight. He’s super skilled. I mean, he’s as good a shooter as I’ve ever coached. So the fact that he went 3-of-4 from three is not really that shocking. I’d venture to say he’s gonna have plenty other games where he goes 3-of-4, 4-of-5, 5-of-6. Who knows. He can shoot it, and his pace is good. His skill level is high. He’s got a good finishing package in the lane. He’s good. I don’t know that I would say I envisioned this because – we knew he was really good coming out of high school. I think maybe sometimes it takes a little bit to adjust in college or whatever. He definitely had some good games at Auburn, but we thought he could be more like what he was coming out of high school, and I think that’s what you saw tonight.”

On responding to Illinois’ runs

“I think they cut it to eight at one point, if I remember right. I think maybe we had a 14-point lead. I couldn’t remember. Did they cut it lower than that? I think maybe eight was where we got. We were up 18 at one point in the first half. I think we were up maybe 17 in the second half, if I remember right, at some point. They cut it to eight, and I think that’s when I called the timeout. I thought we came out of that timeout, played pretty well. I think we went on a 7-0 run after the timeout, and it started with some defense. We got some transition buckets off our defense, and then they made some tough shots. I thought we did a better job keeping them off – they ended up with 14 O boards. They had 13 with about 12 minutes to go in the game. We kept talking about making sure they didn’t get any O boards. They got the one there late, I think when Riley got it, if I remember right. But other than that, I thought we did a better job keeping them off the glass. And they’re gonna make some tough shots.

“Sometimes basketball is a little bit of a game of runs, but you gotta make them keep taking tough shots, don’t give up O boards, nothing easy. And then we just had to make sure we had some better shots on our end. We got to do a better job getting to the offensive boards and getting some easy looks, too.”

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On Aiden Sherrell’s performance

“I thought he was good. I mean, we want him to shoot the ball with confidence. We finally got him to drop a three. We’ve seen him shoot well in practice, I thought he had a nice lob he caught. He played pretty physical and got some rebounds. A lot more like what we thought we’d have got, and I got him more minutes. So I thought he deserved more minutes. I thought I should have played him more at Purdue, to be honest with you. But he played a lot better for us tonight. For him to get plus-eight in his nine minutes was pretty good.”



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13-year-old killed, 3 other teens injured in north Alabama after car hits tree stump, sign, fence

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13-year-old killed, 3 other teens injured in north Alabama after car hits tree stump, sign, fence


A 13-year-old passenger was killed and three other teenagers were injured in a single-vehicle wreck Wednesday morning in north Alabama, authorities said.

The teen, who was not wearing a seat belt, was a passenger in a 2015 Nissan Altima that left the road and struck a tree stump, a sign post and then a fence around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday on Blessing Road near Arley Lacey Road, approximately two miles north of Boaz, in Marshall County, said Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Senior Trooper Brandon Bailey.

The driver of the Altima, only identified as an 18-year-old, was injured and taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Two other teenage passengers — a 17-year-old and a 15-year-old — were also injured and taken to a hospital. They were not wearing seat belts, Bailey said.

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Further information on the wreck was unavailable as state troopers continued to investigate the incident.



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