The Week Ahead: FAMU & Troy
11/10/2010 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 10, 2010
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - The University of Alabama men's basketball team begins its season with a pair of games against regional foes Florida A&M and Troy on Friday and Monday.
The Crimson Tide opens up the 2010-11 season on Friday evening against Florida A&M at 7:30 p.m. Friday's contest will be the sixth between the two programs and Anthony Grant's first-ever game against the Rattlers.
The Tide leads the all-time series, 5-0, with the first meeting coming in the 1993-94 season. Alabama has won those previous five meetings by an average of 38.2 points per game and has scored 80 or more points in all but one of the contests.
When the two teams met on Dec. 19, 1995, Alabama held the Rattlers to a season-low 39 points in an 80-39 victory for the Crimson Tide. The Tide's defense limited FAMU to 24.6 percent shooting from the field and only 22.2 percent from behind the arc. Alabama was led in scoring by junior guard Eric Washington with 20 points and in rebounding by Roy Rogers with eight rebounds in what was the third meeting between the schools.
In the most recent contest on Nov. 19, 2008, Alabama jumped on Florida A&M from the opening tip with an 18-0 run to and never looked back on its way to an 89-48 victory. The Tide shot 50 percent from the field held the Rattlers without a three-point field goal in the game. Ronald Steele, who scored eight of his game-high 15 points in the first five minutes of the game, set the tone early in victory.
Following its season opener, the Tide will host in-state foe Troy on Monday evening to close out its homestand before traveling to the Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam. The Trojans come to Tuscaloosa under the direction of coaching legend in the making Don Maestri who is in his 29th season at Troy with 476 career wins. He is also no stranger to the Capstone having served as an assistant at Alabama for two seasons under Wimp Sanderson before being named head coach at Troy in 1982.
Alabama has faced Maestri's Troy program twice before, the last coming in 2007, and holds a 2-0 lead in the all-time series. In the first meeting between the Tide and Trojans, Alabama cruised to a 92-64 victory in Tuscaloosa. Alabama held the Trojans to 31.6 percent shooting while Rod Grizzard led the Tide in both scoring and rebounding with 20 points and eight boards in that contest.
