Tide Hoops Hosts Belmont on Monday
11/18/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
TUSCALOOSA ?? The University of Alabama plays its first of two Thanksgiving Week home games Monday night at 6:00 CT when it hosts Belmont in Coleman Coliseum.
Tickets can be purchased online through the Crimson Tide's official website, www.rolltide.com; by phone by calling 1-877-TIDETIX of 205-348-BAMA or at the Coleman Coliseum Athletic Ticket Box Office.
The first ticketed fans through the door will receive a limited edition collector's commemorative poster of Coleman Coliseum. The game will be televised, live, on CSS with Matt Stewart calling the play-by-play and Tide All-American Wendell Hudson
Alabama brings a 2-0 record into Monday night's game, the first of two back-to-back home games it plays this week as it hosts Southern Miss at 7 p.m. CT on Friday, November 23. Belmont, which opened the season by knocking off Cincinnati 86-75 at Cincinnati, is 3-2 overall with wins against Cincinnati, Western Carolina and Samford and losses to Bowling Green and Austin Peay. The Bruins have yet to play a home game five games into the season. Alabama opened with an 84-72 home win against Troy and followed it November 13 with an 80-83 road win at Mercer.
"Belmont is a good team. They showed that right away when they opened the season with a very decided win against Cincinnati," said Tide basketball coach Mark Gottfried. "We've heard a lot this season about the Atlantic Sun Conference and they're another team that's going to be a very good team. We've got our work cut out for us. We understand it. We know it. Rick Byrd does a great job coaching their team. They are a team that shoots a lot of three's and makes a lot of three's. They don't just have shooters, they have makers. They stretch you out. Stretch the floor out. They do a great job of creating three point opportunities for each other. In their first four games, they've made 40 three's. They are a very good basketball team.
"Belmont is a team that, for one, they are a terrific half court defensive team which probably overlooked because of the way they shoot the ball offensively. But they have a veteran team. If you look at the guys who play for them, most of them are upperclassmen, juniors and seniors. They are an excellent shooting team. They will push the ball up the floor and run. It's not a type of game where they're trying to walk it up and play in the fifties. They are going to try to push the ball. They do a great job of creating three point opportunities for each other. We won't play a lot of games this year that we'll shoot it or will have shot it as well from the three as this team. They're one of the better teams we'll play all year long from that perspective," said Gottfried.
Sophomore forward Demetrius Jemison, who has started in Alabama's first two games and is averaging 11.5 points and 9.5 rebounds, says the Bruins are a team that likes to shoot the 3-point shot with impressive results.
"They are a team that likes to push it and spot up and shoot a lot of three's," said Jemison, "so we're really going to have to guard the ball and come off a lot of fade screens and down screens and contest a lot of three point shots. I guess really their strength. They're not a team that wants to bang with you, they just want to shoot three's and get in the break and put up the three pointers, so we're just going to have to contest."
Alabama has been led by its John Wooden candidate, junior power forward Richard Hendrix with his two-game average of 25.0 points and 18.5 rebounds, but it's been far from a one-man show. As a team Alabama is averaging 55.5 rebounds, grabbing 61 in the opener against Troy and 50 at Mercer. It's averaging 87 points and 22 assists.
The 44 assists in two games has been a team source of pride. Against Mercer, two men sharing the point guard position, Mikhail Torrance and Brandon Hollinger both had six assists. Two more players, Jemison and, off the bench freshman Senario Hillman, both had five assists in that game.
"The guard play has been pretty good right now," said Hollinger, a junior from Mobile. "Getting an average of 22 assists a game is pretty good. That means we're sharing the ball. Nobody's trying to get theirs and get their points or whatever so basically, that's pretty good for any team when you can share the ball like that with each other like that that's basically building good chemistry between the team."
Gottfried says it's a sign of the balanced play Alabama is getting from its players, particularly point guards Torrance, Rico Pickett and Hollinger, combined with scorers on the floor. Five Alabama players are averaging in double digits in scoring, Hendrix at 25.0, Jemison at 11.5, and Riley, Gee and Justin Tubbs at 11.0.
"I think we're going to be a very balanced scoring team," said Gottfried. "I think our players have done a good job of recognizing when to get the ball to Richard and I think Richard has done a good job of getting himself open. I think our team's done a good job of recognizing those things. But you also know that teams are not going to play you differently. You're going to now go into a game plan trying to figure out a way not to let Richard Hendrix get 25 and 19 rebounds, now, what is that going to be? Hopefully then you have a team that's good enough where other players can step up and make plays and score. We're going to put him in good enough positions to do that. I don't think Richard Hendrix is going to do that every night. I hope he does. That'd be great. But teams will do a good job defending him, too. He understands that. He knows."
Still, Gottfried says Hendrix's start has been impressive.
"I don't know that there are a lot of players nationally who have done what Richard has done in two games. Now, it's still only two games, but for these two games I think he's been as good as anybody in the country. He has, I think improved a great deal. I think that we've talked enough about what he's done, the discipline he's had to lose the weight. We got serious with him about his weight, and I think he took to it. He didn't fight it. In my opinion, you're seeing a different player out on the floor. But it's still early. The season's early. But I think after two games there are not a lot of guys in the country who have done what he's done."
