TUSCALOOSA ?? The No. 10 ranked University of Alabama basketball team plays its first of three straight home games Saturday, December 23, when it hosts Coppin State. Tip off in Coleman Coliseum is set for 2 p.m. CT.
Tickets to the game are $12 for adults and $8 for youth. Tickets can be purchased at the door beginning at 10 a.m. or by calling 1-800-TIDETIX.
Alabama is 10-1 and is playing Coppin State for the first time. Coppin State is 2-8, but it has already played, among others, Tennessee, Kansas State, Iowa, Oklahoma, Virginia Tech and Missouri. It played Kansas State to within 11 points. It’s traveling to UConn to play on December 27 and to Ohio State on December 30.
“We have tried to make sure that our players understand that we are playing a very good team,” said Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried. “You have to ignore their record because they’ve played a phenomenally tough schedule. They’re battle-tested. They’re very quick. They’re very, very well-coached. (Ron) Fang Mitchell will have those guys playing extremely hard and they’ll play for 40 minutes. So we have to make sure we are ready to have a high level of intensity tomorrow.”
Alabama is led in scoring by sophomore Alonzo Gee who is averaging 15.8 points and 5.1 rebounds. Close on his heels in scoring is senior center Jermareo Davidson at 15.4 points and 10.2 rebounds. Davidson currently ranks fifth in the NCAA in rebounds and blocks (4.3 per game) and leads the SEC in both of those stats. Davidson’s playing status on Saturday is unknown at the moment as he is in Atlanta with his family. Davidson’s older brother, who had been in critical condition at an Atlanta hospital since November 7, passed away on Wednesday.
Meanwhile Ronald Steele, whose fall practice and early games have been slowed by tendonitis in the right knee since October and then a sprained left ankle early in the December 7 Notre Dame game, has been practicing with the team the past two days and should be able to play Saturday.
Both Davidson and Steele are John R. Wooden award candidates and are All-Southeastern Conference, making for an interesting start to Alabama’s season. The Tide has had to practice some two dozen times now without one or sometimes both of them and has had to play two games already without Davidson who has had a heartbreaking early season, and three games without Steele.
Richard Hendrix has stepped his game up and is shooting .611% (66-108) from the field in 11 games. He’s averaging 15.2 points and scored 34 points in his last outing at Coleman Coliseum when he scored that tally against Alabama State on December 9. Hendrix has had four double doubles in his last seven games.
Follow Saturday’s game, Alabama will host Lipscomb on December 29 at 7 p.m. and then Oklahoma on January 1 at 1:30 p.m. Lipscomb is coached by former Tuscaloosa resident Scott Sanderson whose father, Wimp Sanderson coached the Tide from 1981-1992. And when Alabama plays Oklahoma on January 1, the first 1,000 ticketed fans through the doors will receive a Ronald Steele backpack designed to look like his 2006 retro jersey.
