TUSCALOOSA ?? The University of Alabama is ringing in the New Year with a challenge Monday when the No. 8 ranked Crimson Tide basketball team plays host to Oklahoma. Tip-off in Coleman Coliseum on New Year's Day is at 1:30 p.m. CT. ESPN is televising it.
The first 1,000 ticketed fans through the doors will receive a Ronald Steele backpack. The backpack is made in the likeness of Steele's 2006 Alabama retro jersey. Kids who have attended the Mark Gottfried basketball camps can get in the game free if they are wearing their official camp tee-shirt. Tickets are available to the game and can be purchased at the door. Tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for youth's 18 and under. Fans can also call 1-800-TIDETIX or go on Alabama's website at www.rolltide.com to purchase tickets.
Alabama brings a 12-1 overall record into the game Monday against the Sooners, 8-3, in a game that marks the end of Alabama's regular season non-conference schedule. Alabama opens Southeastern Conference play Saturday at Arkansas.
The Tide traveled to Norman to play the Sooners on New Year's Eve last year and left with a 68-56 loss. In fact in the five times Alabama has played Oklahoma, Alabama has only won once. Mark Gottfried's 2003 team, which included 2002 SEC Player of the Year Erwin Dudley, beat the Sooners in the Coaches vs. Cancer Classic in Madison Square Garden 68-62. This is only the second time Oklahoma has ever come to Tuscaloosa to play. The first trip was in 1971 for a game Oklahoma won 79-70.
Oklahoma has since changed head coaches with Jeff Capel, a former Duke star, now leading the Sooners. Though Alabama played Oklahoma last season and the Sooners return many of the players from that team, a new coach means a new system.
"There are some differences, obviously, from last year," said Alabama head coach Mark Gottfried. "Coaches put their own stamp on their team. But some of the personnel are the same. This is a team that I think is very, very good. They shoot the ball extremely well from the perimeter. I think Longar Longar inside is emerging as one of the best big men in the country. They are a team that I think will win a lot of games this year."
The Sooners have four starters who average in double digits in scoring, led by 6-foot-11 junior center Longar Longar's 13.9 points a game and 7.7 rebounds per game. Also averaging double digits and starting for Oklahoma are 6-foot-3 senior guard Michael Neal (10.9 ppg), 6-foot-5 freshman guard Tony Crocker (10.6 ppg), and 6-foot-3 sophomore guard Austin Johnson (10.6 ppg). Rounding out the Sooners starting lineup is 6-foot-7 sophomore forward Taylor Griffin.
All five of Alabama's starters are averaging in double digits in scoring, led by 6-foot-6 sophomore forward Alonzo Gee's 15.5 points, 6-foot-8 sophomore forward Richard Hendrix's 15.4 points, 6-foot-10 ?? senior center Jermareo Davidson's 14.6 points and 9.8 rebounds, 6-foot-6 junior guard Mykal Riley's 12.5 points and 6-foot-3 junior point guard Ronald Steele's 10.7 points and 4.7 assists per game.
Four of those Tide starters, Steele, Davidson, Gee and Hendrix, were starters in the Alabama vs. Oklahoma game last year. Steele and then senior Chuck Davis led Alabama with 18 points apiece in a night where Alabama shot 46.5% for the game, but Steele and Hendrix remember the game for what Alabama did not do??rebound. Alabama had a total of 18 rebounds that night, 17 defensive rebounds and only one offensive rebound. Meanwhile, Oklahoma had 40 rebounds in the game.
"I remember last year they really beat us on the offensive rebounds," said Steele. "I think their intensity was a lot higher than ours and I think they just out-played us as far as effort-wise, so we're going to have to make sure that doesn't happen again if we're going to have a chance to win. We can't let that happen again because they are a good team again this year."
Hendrix, too, remembers it that way, particularly under the boards.
"Last year they dominated the glass which made them dominate the game which gave them the win," said Hendrix who is shooting 61% from the field after 13 games and has had six double doubles this season, including his last three straight games. "This year we're going to have to just do what it takes to protect our house to get the win."
Rebounding has been Alabama's 2006-07 team's strength. Alabama is averaging 43.8 rebounds a game compared to 33.2 by opponents' for a 10.6 margin. In its last five games Alabama has 216 rebounds to its opponents' 139. Hendrix and Davidson lead in that stat, Hendrix with 9.2 rebounds a game and Davidson with 9.8 rebounds a game. Oklahoma is averaging 38.3 rebounds a game this season and holding its opponents to 29.9 rebounds a game. Longar is its leading rebounder with 7.7 rebounds a game.
Offensively, 13 games into the season Alabama is averaging 80.3 points a game---it jumps to 86.0 points a game in its last five. It is holding opponents to an average of 62.4 points a game. Oklahoma averages 70.5 points a game and is holding its opponents to 53.7 points a game.
