Alabama
Dayton
Alabama Men’s Basketball Hosts Dayton in Midday Game on Tuesday
11/14/2016 2:39:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Crimson Tide and Flyers will square off at 12:15 p.m. as part of ESPN Tip Off Marathon
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama returns to action when it plays host to the Dayton Flyers on Tuesday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. CT. The contest will be played as part of the ESPN Tip Off Marathon.
Alabama and Dayton will meet for the fourth time in the last six years and for the fifth time in series history when the two teams square off on the hardwood Tuesday afternoon. This contest will mark just the second time in the series that Crimson Tide will play host to the Flyers, with the only other occasion coming during the 2012-13 season. Dayton is riding a three-game winning streak in the series, including an 80-48 victory last season in Dayton, Ohio. The loss was the largest margin of defeat since a 105-71 setback against Ole Miss on March 3, 2001.
Tuesday's game will be available on ESPN2 with Tom Hart and Kara Lawson on the call. Fans can listen to the radio broadcast on the Crimson Tide Sports Network as Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) are on the call. Live stats for the contest can accessed through RollTide.com, while in-game game updates and photos will be made available on Twitter on @AlabamaMBB.
PROMOTIONS
Noonball – First 1,200 students in the door will get a free t-shirt
100 pizzas have been ordered and will be passed out to the student section prior to the game
$5 Tickets for all faculty and staff
COACH AVERY JOHNSON THOUGHTS
"I'm just really excited to get back on the court (Tuesday) afternoon. We are playing in front of a national audience as the game will be broadcasted on ESPN2. I think it is going to be great for our guys. Our guys are well aware of the really good basketball team we are going to be playing against. Dayton is a seasoned veteran basketball team. They are also a team that we didn't have our best performance against last year. I don't think we were ready to take quite that big of a leap that early in the season, but we needed to play that game. I am glad that tomorrow's game is at home, and now they (Dayton) will have an opportunity to come play on our home court. Fortunately, some of our returning players played in that game last year and I curious to see how they are going to respond. I am also looking forward to seeing how our new guys respond. The one thing I do know is our defensive performance on Friday night will not be good enough, and offensively we are going to have to do a better job of taking quality shots and moving the ball a little bit more. This is an uphill task and Dayton is a very good team who has a lot of upperclassman that know what they are doing. At the same time, if we play like we practiced yesterday then we will have a good shot."
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- After defeating Faulkner, 91-71, in the team's lone exhibition game of the year on Nov. 3, the Crimson Tide opened the regular season with a 70-53 win over Coastal Carolina. Senior guard Corban Collins led Alabama with 15 points, while junior Riley Norris added 14 in the winning effort.
- With the 70-53 win over Coastal Carolina, Alabama has now won 16 straight home games when playing against non-conference competition in Coleman Coliseum. The last time an Alabama team lost to a non-conference opponent under the arched roof came on Dec. 21, 2013, against Xavier (lost 77-74).
- With the win over the Chanticleers to open the 2016-17 campaign, the Crimson Tide improves to 83-21 all-time in season openers. The Tide is now 46-4 when opening a season at Coleman Coliseum.
- Alabama opened the season in front of 14,579 fans, which marked the second straight season the Tide had a season-opening crowd of more than 14,000 fans (14,970 vs. Kennesaw State in 2015-16 season opener).
- Alabama set a new home attendance record in head coach Avery Johnson's first year. The Crimson Tide averaged 13,110 fans per game, which ranked as the highest single-season per game attendance average in program history (full note on page 10). Furthermore, the Tide ranked second in the nation in increased attendance, improving 2,934 fans per game from 10,176 in 2014-15 to 13,110 last season.
- Alabama returns two starters and eight letterwinners from last season's 18-15 team that reached the National Invitation Tournament. The Crimson Tide will have to find a way to replace three of its top four scorers and its top three assist leaders from the 2015-16 squad. Part of that void will be filled with the return of redshirt freshman Dazon Ingram, who started each of the first seven games of the year before suffering a season-ending foot injury. At the time of his injury, Ingram was leading the team in assists and rebounds from his point guard position. Head coach Avery Johnson also welcomes back senior forward Shannon Hale, who returns as the team's leading scorer at 10.8 points per game.
- Alabama will play its third consecutive home game to begin the 2016-17 campaign when it hosts the Ball State Cardinals on Friday, Nov. 18, at 8 p.m. CT. The contest, which is a part of the Las Vegas MGM Grand event, will tip off at 8 p.m. CT.
ALABAMA COMPETING IN 104TH SEASON OF BASKETBALL
• Alabama has begun its 104th season of basketball in 2016-17.
• The Tide has an all-time record of 1,619-999-1 (.618), which includes a 765-588 (.565) record in SEC play.
• Alabama ranks second in the SEC in league victories and all-time winning percentage.
• UA has made 33 NCAA (19) or NIT (14) appearances and has won seven SEC regular-season titles and six SEC Tournament championships.
ALABAMA OPENS SEASON WITH 70-53 WIN OVER COASTAL CAROLINA
• The Alabama men's basketball team opened the season with a 70-53 victory over Coastal Carolina in front of 14,579 fans at Coleman Coliseum Friday night. After trailing by six at intermission, the Tide used a 17-2 run in the opening minutes of the second half to propel it to a double-digit victory.
• Alabama senior guard Corban Collins led the Tide with 15 points, while going 3-of-7 from beyond the arc and sinking all six of his free throws. He also added three assists without a turnover and a pair of steals.
• Junior forward Riley Norris finished with 14 points and also made three from three-point range, while redshirt freshman Dazon Ingram hit all three of his shots from beyond the arc and finished with 11 points, along with a team-best five assists and just one turnover.
• Trailing 38-33 with 18:46 to play, Alabama used a 9-0 spurt to spark its 17-2 run that lasted nearly eight minutes, turning the five point deficit into a 50-40 lead. The Tide's defense was nearly as impressive as it held Coastal Carolina to just nine points in the first 10 minutes of the second half. Over the first six and a half minutes of the half, the Tide shot 75 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range.
• After Coastal Carolina trimmed the lead to just four points, 52-48, with 7:24 to play, Collins, Ingram and Norris connected on three consecutive three-pointers to spark an 18-5 run to end the contest, resulting in the final score.
ALABAMA VS. COASTAL CAROLINA: QUICK HITS
• The win marked the fewest points allowed in a season-opener since 2011-12 when Alabama defeated North Florida, 64-44.
• The Tide and the Chanticleers played in front of 14,576 fans inside Coleman Coliseum. It was the second consecutive year Alabama played a season opener of over 14,000-plus fans. Last season, the Tide opened the season against Kennesaw State in front of 14,970, which was the largest crowd at a home opener since a crowd of 15,043 fans were in attendance against North Carolina in the 1989 season opener.
• With the victory, Alabama has an all-time record of 83-21 in season-opening contests. The Tide has now won 11 of its last 15 openers.
• UA has a record of 46-4 when playing its first home game of the season at Coleman Coliseum. That number dates back to the first-ever game played at the venue, which opened on Feb. 1, 1968 (won 86-65 vs. Samford). The four losses have come against Cornell in 2009, Mercer in 2008, Chattanooga in 1993 and La Salle in 1979.
AVERY JOHNSON HAS SUCCESSFUL FIRST YEAR AT ALABAMA
• Avery Johnson closed out a successful first season as the head men's basketball coach at The University of Alabama. Picked to finish 13th out of 14 teams in the Southeastern Conference in a preseason coaches poll, the Crimson Tide closed the year with an 18-15 overall record and reached the 2016 National Invitation Tournament.
• The Tide accomplished a lot of milestones under Johnson's guidance during the 2015-16 season. Included in those was setting a new single-season average attendance record of 13,110 fans per game. Additionally, Alabama defeated four top-25 teams on the year – the most victories over ranked opponents since the 2001-02 season – after going a combined 0-18 over the previous four years in such contests.
• Other highlights included 18 victories last season which tied Johnson for the most wins by a first-year head coach in program history (matched Wimp Sanderson's 18 wins during his inaugural season in 1980-81). In addition, Johnson led the Tide to eight wins away from Coleman Coliseum which were the most since the 2011-12 campaign. Of those eight road wins, the biggest came when the Tide secured a 61-55 win at Florida, which not only snapped an 11-game losing streak to the Gators, but also was Alabama's first win in Gainesville since 1995.
• Johnson was introduced as Alabama's 20th head men's basketball coach on April 8, 2015. Johnson, who led the San Antonio Spurs to the 1999 NBA title and was named the 2006 NBA Coach of the Year, came to the Capstone after a successful coaching career in the NBA. Johnson boasted a 254-186 (.577) career coaching record after spending seven-plus seasons as a head coach in the NBA (Dallas Mavericks and Brooklyn Nets).
• During his time in Dallas, Johnson led the Mavericks to the postseason in each of his three-plus seasons as head coach. He led the Mavericks to a record of 194-70 (.735) and set the record for reaching the 50-win plateau (62 games) and the 150-win plateau (191 games) the fastest.
• In 16 NBA seasons as a player, he averaged 8.4 points, 5.5 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 25.3 minutes played in 1,054 career games with seven different teams. Known as "The Little General" for his on-court leadership and diminutive stature, Johnson helped guide the San Antonio Spurs to an NBA Championship in 1999.
• On March, 28 2003, as a member of the Mavericks, Johnson became the 75th player in league history to play 1,000 career games. At 5-11, he joined Calvin Murphy as the only other player under 6-feet in height to reach that milestone. He is still the Spurs' all-time leader in assists (4,474) and ranks 28th in NBA history in the same category. In recognition for his contributions to the Spurs organization, Johnson's No. 6 jersey was retired in December of 2007.
• The New Orleans native played his final two collegiate seasons at Southern University, leading the NCAA in assists in each of his two years, and was named the Southwestern Athletic Conference Player of the Year and the MVP of the conference tournament as both a junior and senior.
• He still owns several NCAA Division I records, including most assists in a single game (22 – shared with two other players), most 20-or-more assist games (4), the highest single season assist average (13.3) and the highest career assist average (12.0). As a senior in 1988, he averaged 11.4 points per game, making him the first men's Division I player ever to average double figures in points and assists in the same season.
• Johnson received a degree in psychology in 1988 from Southern University. He married his wife Cassandra in July of 1991 in New Orleans. They have two children, Christianne and Avery Jr., who transferred to Alabama from Texas A&M and sat out the 2015-16 season due to NCAA transfer rules.
TIDE RANKED NO. 22 IN ATTENDANCE, NO. 2 IN ATTENDANCE INCREASE
• The NCAA released its attendance numbers for the 2015-16 men's basketball season on June 8 and Alabama ranked second in the nation in "Largest Increase for Average Attendance from Previous Year," improving 2,934 fans per game from 10,176 in 2014-15 to 13,110 in 2015-16.
• Furthermore, Alabama's average attendance from the 2015-16 season ranked 22nd in the nation among Division I home attendance leaders, while the Southeastern Conference as a whole ranked second in the nation in average attendance at 11,144. That number was +325 in average from a year ago, which led all conferences.
• The Crimson Tide set a school record by averaging 13,110 fans per game during the first year under Johnson, topping the former mark of 12,484 fans per game during the 2011-12 campaign.
HOME SWEET HOME
• Dating back to the 2009-10 season, Alabama owns a record of 97-26 (.787) on the Coleman Coliseum floor, including a 10-5 mark during the 2015-16 season. During the 2013-14 season, the Tide finished with a 13-4 mark at home, while finished with a 14-5 record in home games during the 2014-15 campaign.
• Since the start of the 2010-11 campaign, the Tide has won 86 of the last 106 games played under the arched roof of Coleman Coliseum (86-20; .810).
• Overall, Alabama owns a record of 555-129 (.811) in the facility's 48th season of use.
• Alabama opened the year with a win over Coastal Carolina to extend its non-conference win streak to 16 straight games at Coleman Coliseum. The last home loss in the non-conference regular season came when the Tide dropped a 77-74 decision to Xavier on Dec. 21, 2013.
• Since 2009, Alabama owns a home record of 43-17 (.717) against SEC competition. Since 2011, the Tide boasts a 38-13 (.745) mark at home against the conference.
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