Men's Hoops Set to Host South Carolina
1/11/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Jan. 11, 2011
| Alabama Basketball Preview - vs. South Carolina | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Alabama (9-6, 1-0 SEC) vs. South Carolina (10-4, 1-0 SEC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -
The University of Alabama men's basketball team returns home to face South Carolina in its first SEC home game of the season on Wednesday evening. Tipoff between the Crimson Tide and Gamecocks is scheduled for 8 p.m. at Coleman Coliseum with the contest being televised by CSS and carried on radio by the Crimson Tide Sports Network.
South Carolina makes its biennial trip to Tuscaloosa after opening its SEC slate with an 83-75 overtime win over Vanderbilt on Saturday to improve to 10-4. Meanwhile the Tide is a perfect 8-0 at home this season and returns to its home court after a 75-57 win at Mississippi State on Saturday to open SEC play and improve to 9-6 on the season.
"Beating Vanderbilt at their (South Carolina's) place was a huge win for them and the manner in which they won was very impressive," UA head coach Anthony Grant said of Wednesday's opponent. "It will be a challenging game for our guys and it comes down to preparation and making sure that we're ready on the defensive end and ready for what they'll give us on defense as well."
Less than 3,000 tickets remain for Wednesday's contest and are available via rolltide.com or by calling the ticket office at 1.877.TIDETIX to see the Tide try to open league play with a 2-0 record for the first time since 2002.
Alabama's defense has been its benchmark as of late with the team allowing 56.5 points per game, the eighth-best average in the nation this season and best in the SEC by nearly four points per game. South Carolina is averaging 73.6 points per game but faces a UA defense that has only allowed two opponents to score more than 70 points this season with 10 being held to 60 or fewer points.
"They've done a good job locking in and understanding that our defense gives us a chance to win every night," Grant said of his squad's defense. "It's one game at a time, every game will bring different challenges and this will be a different challenge for us in terms of the tempo they play at on both ends of the floor."
The contest will feature the SEC's two active leaders in blocks with Alabama's JaMychal Green and USC's Sam Muldrow squaring off in the paint. Muldrow leads active SEC players with 216 blocks after recording USC's second ever triple-double with 16 points, 14 rebounds and 10 blocks against Vanderbilt. Green boasts 125 career blocks and recorded his third double-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds in the win at Mississippi State.
The perimeter matchup will feature two of the SEC's top freshmen point guards with Alabama's Trevor Releford and USC's Bruce Ellington facing each other. Releford had a game-high 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting at Mississippi State and has a 12-to-3 assist-to-turnover ratio in the last three games while Ellington averages 14.8 points per game with two 20-point outings in his last three games.
Wednesday's game will be the 34th between the two programs with UA holding a 21-12 advantage after sweeping a pair of meetings last season.
