Tide Welcomes Mississippi to Coleman Coliseum Wednesday Evening
1/20/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 20, 2009
ALABAMA (11-6, 1-2 SEC) vs. Mississippi (10-7, 1-2 SEC)
Wednesday, January 21
Tipoff: 7 p.m. (CST)
TV: WVUA (Tape Delayed)
Radio: Crimson Tide Sports Network
Promotion: Academic Achievement Night - Students from area schools are rewarded for their academic success. Individual schools will distribute a voucher to deserving students. The voucher will allow the student and a guest into the game for free.
Halftime: Memphis Grizzlies Dunk Team
The Alabama men's basketball team returns to campus and the hospitable confines of Coleman Coliseum to face the University of Mississippi Wednesday evening at 7 p.m.
The Crimson Tide aims to even its Southeastern Conference record as it returns home with a 1-2 SEC mark following back-to-back road losses at Mississippi State and Auburn. UA is certainly glad to hit the home hardwood as it has won its last six home contests, including a 65-59 win over LSU to open SEC play on January 11.
Overall, the Tide is 11-6 this season and has outscored opponents by an average of 16 points in its 11 victories.
Mississippi is 10-7 this season and 1-2 in the SEC with a win over Arkansas and losses to Florida and most recently, LSU in an 83-51 setback at home. Mississippi has neither won nor lost consecutive games since November, going 6-6 in its last 12 outings.
"We obviously need to bounce back [from Saturday's loss at Auburn] and Ole Miss is in the same situation," said UA head coach Mark Gottfried. "You've got two teams coming off a loss and both teams are going to play very hard."
Wednesday's game is the 163rd in the series with UA holding a 113-49 advantage with seven wins in the last 10 games against Mississippi and a 34-5 record against Mississippi under the Coleman's arched roof.
Alabama junior Mikhail Torrance enters the contest after posting back-to-back career highs last week with 20 points at Mississippi State and 24 points at Auburn. Both performances came off the bench as he and senior Brandon Hollinger combined to fill the void created by point guard Ronald Steele's foot injury. Steele has since elected to forgo the remainder of his senior season.
Alonzo Gee remains the team's top scorer with 14.2 points per game after his 15th-consecutive double-digit outing at Auburn. He is also the team's top rebounder with 7.6 boards per game.
Freshman JaMychal Green is second on the team in rebounding with 7.0 rebounds per game, tops among all freshman in the SEC. He has scored in double-figures in back-to-back games and has two double-doubles this season. Joining Green underneath, is sophomore Justin Knox who has averaged 8.0 points and 5.5 rebounds the past two games. The pair leads an effort that is third in the league in offensive rebounding this season with 13.9 per game.
For Mississippi, Terrico White, the SEC Freshman of the Week, scored a game-high 22 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor in the loss to LSU. UM faced a 41-18 halftime deficit in that game after shooting just 28.6 percent in the opening stanza.
David Huertas leads the UM with 18.7 points per game with a team-high 45 three-pointers while forwards Murphy Holloway and Malcolm White average 5.8 and 5.0 rebounds per game.
"Huertas is a heck of a scorer and a good player," said Gottfried. "The freshman they've got coming off the bench Terrico White, he's had some great games and is a very athletic good player as well. They got a lot of good players. Again, we've got to get ourselves ready to play on Wednesday night."
The team has been decimated by injury with three players, Trevor Gaskins, Eniel Polynice and Chris Warren all out for the remainder of the season with various injuries.
Despite its offensive and defensive scoring averages being nearly identical, Mississippi has only played in three games decided by five or fewer points this season.
