Alabama
Lipscomb
Alabama Men’s Basketball Welcomes Lipscomb in Home Opener
11/13/2017 4:18:00 PM | Men's Basketball
Crimson Tide and Bison tip at 7 p.m. CT on SEC Network
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 25 Alabama men's basketball team will open the home portion of the 2017-18 schedule on Tuesday night when it takes on the Lipscomb Bison. The contest is slated to tip off at 7 p.m. CT and will air on SEC Network.
THE BROADCAST
• Tuesday's game will air on SEC Network with Dave Neal (play-by-play) and Dane Bradshaw (analyst) on the call.
• The radio broadcast can be found on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call, with the pregame show beginning at 6 p.m. CT. Tide fans can check their local listings for the exact station.
OPENING TIP
• Alabama opened the 2017-18 season with an 82-70 win over Memphis in the Veterans Classic in Annapolis, Md. It marked the first Crimson Tide season-opening victory away from Coleman Coliseum since UA defeated Oklahoma, 68-62, in New York City on Nov. 14, 2002.
• After serving a one-game suspension levied by the NCAA, freshman guard Collin Sexton is set to make his Alabama debut Tuesday night against Lipscomb.
• Alabama and Lipscomb will meet for the third time in series history. The Tide owns a 2-0 lead agains the Bison, with both contests played in Tuscaloosa (Full series info on page 3).
• The Tide is 46-4 in home openers at Coleman Coliseum and have won seven consecutive such contests. Alabama'a last home opening defeat came on Nov. 14, 2009 to Cornell (lost, 71-67).
ABOUT ALABAMA
• Alabama returns four starters and seven letterwinners from last season's 19-15 team that reached the National Invitation Tournament. The Crimson Tide will return 73 percent of its total scoring output, 58 percent of its rebounding and 77 percent of its assist totals from a year ago. In addition, head coach Avery Johnson's returning letterwinners started 69 percent of last year's games and accounted for 68 percent of the total minutes played, 74 percent of its field goals made, 75 percent of its made threes and 73 percent of the total made free throws.
• Alabama welcomes back its top four scorers and seven of the top eight scorers from last season's squad. Leading the list of returnees is SEC All-Freshman honoree Braxton Key, who led the team in scoring (12.0 ppg) and minutes (29.9 mpg), while ranking second in rebounding (5.7 rpg) and assists (2.5 apg). He is joined by Dazon Ingram, who was the only player to start all 34 contests a year ago and topped the team in assists (3.3 apg), steals (0.9 spg) and three-pont field goal percentage (.429), while also ranking second in scoring (10.6 ppg). Together, Key (407 points) and Ingram (360 points) became the program's top scoring freshmen duo in program history, combining to score a total of 767 points.
• Junior Donta Hall returns after a stellar sophomore season in which he led Alabama in dunks (36), field goal percentate (.658) and blocked shots (1.4 bpg). He also established career-best numbers when he averaged 6.0 points and 5.5 rebounds per game to go along with his 20 starts. Meanwhile, the Tide's lone four-year senior on the 2017-18 squad is guard/forward Riley Norris. Last season, Norris averaged 9.0 points and 3.8 rebounds a game, while topping Alabama in threes made at 47.
• In addition to the returning letterwinners, Alabama welcomes five freshmen who collectively made up the nation's sixth-ranked recruiting class according to Rivals.com – the highest-rated class in program history. According to the site, four of the Tide's five newcomers were considered top-100 players and included a pair of five-star signees in Collin Sexton (ranked No. 7) and John Petty (ranked No. 25), two four star signees in Herb Jones (Ranked No. 86) and Alex Reese (Ranked No. 95), along with three-star prospect Galin Smith.
• Sophomore Daniel Giddens will be eligible to play after sitting out the 2016-17 season as an NCAA transfer. Giddens, who played his freshman season at Ohio State, was one of the top-rated centers coming out of high school. After playing his final prep season at Oak Hill Academy, Giddens was a consensus top-50 player and top-10 center nationally. In his lone season at Ohio State, the 6-11, 240-pound forward/center saw action in 33 contests, while making seven starts, and averaged 3.8 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.5 blocks in 18.2 minutes per game.
ABOUT LIPSCOMB
• Alabama and Lipscomb will meet for just the third time in series history and the first time since Alabama captured a 71-55 win back on Dec. 21, 2010. The only other meeting occurred on Dec. 29, 2006 with the Tide downing the Bisons, 80-58. All three meetings between the two teams have taken place at Coleman Colisem.
• Lipscomb enters the contest with a 2-0 record on the year, after a pair of home victories over Emory, 98-63, on Nov. 10 and Morehead State, 77-70, on Nov. 12. Tuesday's contests will mark the Bison's third game in five days.
• Lipscomb returns four starters and 10 letterwinners from last season's 20-13 team. The Bisons finished second in the A-Sun with an 11-3 mark in conference play.
• Juniors Rob Marberry and Garrison Mathews were both unanimous preseason All-Atlantic Sun selections, while the Bisons were predicted to finish second in the league standings by both the coaches and the media. Mathews comes into Tuesday night's contest averaging an impressive 31.0 points per game through two contests, while Marberry's 15.0 ppg ranks second on the team.
• Casey Alexander was named the 18th head coach of the Lipscomb University program in May 2013 taking over the team following a two-year stint as head coach at Stetson University. Now in his fifth season at the helm of the program, Alexander owns a record of 63-66 (.488).
• Lipscomb University is located in the outskirts of Nashville, Tenn., and boasts an enrollment of 2,987 students. It was founded in 1891 by David Lipscomb and James A. Harding as Nashville Bible School.
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