ST. THOMAS, VIRGIN ISLANDS ?? No. 10 ranked Alabama, 2-0, will play Iowa, 2-0, Sunday in the semifinals of the 2006 Paradise Jam.
Alabama advanced in the winner’s bracket of the eight-team tournament field with a 71-62 win against Middle Tennessee in Friday’s opening round. Iowa advanced with a 78-65 win against Toledo. The two teams in the other half of the bracket semifinal are Xavier and Villanova.
The Crimson Tide plays the Hawkeyes on Sunday at 5 p.m. CST while Villanova and Xavier follow in a 7:30 p.m. CST semifinal game. Both games will be televised on Fox Sports Net.
“We watched the tape this morning of our game last night, and we didn’t play well at all, but I think we were fortunate to get the win,” said Alabama preseason All-American point guard Ronald Steele of his team’s performance against Middle Tennessee. “I do think the young guys came in and played hard. I think everybody played hard. We just didn’t execute well. But we’ll have to play a lot better because we’re playing a good Iowa team. They’ve got a lot of good players, so it’s going to be important for us to play our best basketball. I watched them play a little bit against Toledo after our game yesterday. They just look like a solid team. Good players on the outside and the inside, so we are going to have to play well.”
Alabama and Iowa have never met in men’s basketball. The game pits two coaches, Alabama’s Mark Gottfried, and Iowa’s Steve Alford, who were both senior basketball players in 1987, Gottfried leading Alabama to its third straight NCAA Sweet 16 appearance and both the Southeastern Conference’s regular season and tournament championships that year and Alford leading Indiana to the national championship.
Tide All-SEC senior center Jermareo Davidson was en route to re-joining the Tide team Saturday, leaving Tuscaloosa on Saturday morning and scheduled to arrive in St. Thomas around 3 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time. Davidson was a passenger in an automobile accident in his hometown of Atlanta that killed his girlfriend last weekend. He stayed behind to attend her funeral in Alabama on Friday.
Whether Davidson will be ready to play is questionable as Alabama’s coaches are giving him time to begin recovery from the tragedy.
Meanwhile Gottfried and his team reviewed its game film against Middle Tennessee at breakfast on Saturday morning. The day off from competition will include an autograph session sponsored by the tournament organizers at a local mall Saturday afternoon, and the team will practice and review Iowa film Saturday evening.
“Iowa is a very good team,” said Gottfried of the Hawkeyes who finished 25-9 and knocked off three Top 10 teams last season, though it only returns two of the starters from that squad. “They’ve got some new players from a year ago, but they’ve done a nice job on integrating the new players. They’re big, physical, and they really rebound well. So we’ve got some challenges there. After watching the film from last night, we can get a lot better, but our guys did play very hard last night and one thing I liked about our effort.”
The teams that win the semifinal games advance to the tournament championship game which will be Monday night at 7:30 CT.
