Alabama
Murray State
Alabama Men’s Basketball Returns to Action on Monday Night to Host Murray State
11/25/2018 1:11:00 PM | Men's Basketball
The Crimson Tide and Racers will tip off at 7 p.m. CT
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama men's basketball team will play its first game in eight days when it welcomes the Murray State Racers to Coleman Coliseum for a Monday night showdown. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. CT and the contest can be seen on SEC Network+.
The Crimson Tide is off to a 4-1 start to the season, while the Racers (3-0) will play their first road game of the year after opening the campaign with three consecutive home victories.
Alabama is coming off a fifth-place finish at the Charleston Classic, closing the event with a 2-1 record. After an opening round loss to Northeastern, Alabama responded with a 79-61 victory over Ball State followed by a hard-fought 90-86 triumph over Wichita State.
PROMOTIONS
• $5 tickets (Cyber Monday offer)
• Jack's chicken biscuit giveaway (student entrance)
THE BROADCAST
• Monday's game will air on SEC Network+ with Eli Gold and Wimp Sanderson on the call.
• The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.
ALABAMA IS IN 106th SEASON OF BASKETBALL
• Alabama is in its 106th season of basketball in 2018-19. The Tide's first season of hoops came in 1912-13. There was no season in 1943-44 due to World War II.
• The Tide holds an all-time record of 1,661-1,031-1 (.617), which includes a 783-606 (.559) record in SEC play. The program's first year of play was 1912-13.
• Alabama ranks second in the SEC in league victories and all-time winning percentage entering the 2018-19 campaign.
• UA has made 35 NCAA (20) or NIT (15) appearances and has won seven SEC regular-season titles and six SEC Tournament championships.
ABOUT ALABAMA
• Alabama is off to a 4-1 start to the season after winning two of three games it played at the 2018 Charleston Classic, which was held at TD Arena on the campus of the College of Charleston. It's the second-best start to a season in head coach Avery Johnson's four years at The Capstone (started 5-0 last season).
• Sophomore guard John Petty leads a balanced scoring attack that features six Alabama players averaging 8.8 points per game or more. Petty tops the team with 13.4 ppg, while also leading UA in three-point shooting (13-of-30, 43.3 percent) and is tied for the team lead in assists (2.8 apg). Freshman Kira Lewis Jr. is second on the team at 13.2 ppg and is tied with Petty for the team lead in assists (14). He has also hit all 14 of his free throw attempts on the season.
• Sophomore Herbert Jones is the third Crimson Tide player to average double figures with 10.4 ppg, while also topping the team in steals (5) and charges taken (11), while adding 5.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game. Senior Donta Hall tops the Tide in total dunks (8) along with rebounds (6.6) and blocks (1.8) per game, while adding 9.2 points per contest.
• As a team, Alabama is shooting 45.3 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from beyond the arc through five games on the year. The Crimson Tide is outscoring the competition by 6.8 points per game (76.8-70.0) and owns a +6.0 edge on the glass (36.8-30.8). UA has been a dominant force on the offensive glass, averaging nearly 13 offensive rebounds per game (12.6-8.2) through its first five contests of the year.
• Alabama welcomed back three of its top four and nine of the top 11 scorers from last season's squad. Leading the list of returnees is Hall, who paces all returning players in scoring (10.6 ppg), rebounding (6.6 rpg), blocks (2.0 bpg), dunks (75) and field goal percentage (.726).
• Petty, who was one of only two players to see action in all 36 contests a year ago (Avery Johnson Jr.) contributed 10.2 points and 1.8 assists per game in 2017-18. Meanwhile, Ingram was also a force to reckon with at 9.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game, while returning as the team leader in assists (2.6 apg) and free throws made and attempted (122-of-177).
ABOUT MURRAY STATE
• The Racers return three starters including sophomore point guard Ja Morant (Dalzell, S.C.) who was named All-OVC First Team and All-OVC Newcomer Team as a freshman. Morant started every one of the Racers' 32 games and was 15th nationally with 6.2 assists per game. Among NCAA D-I freshman, only Oklahoma's Tre Young was better with 8.7. Morant enters his sophomore season as the fifth returning scorer in the OVC at 12.7ppg, the eighth returning rebounder at 6.5 rpg and the top returning assister at 6.3apg.
• Murray State was picked to finish second by a narrow margin. Belmont, who has won four of the past six OVC regular season championships, picked up eight first-place votes, to edge last year's regular season and tournament champions Murray State by six points (227 to 221). The Racers led the way with nine first-place votes while Jacksonville State, the 2017 OVC Tournament champions, picked up the other seven first-place votes and 211 total points in being picked third.
• A year ago Murray State was 26-6 overall and 16-2 in OVC play as it captured its 25th OVC regular season and 16th OVC Tournament championships. The Racers earned a 12 seed in the NCAA Tournament where they came up short against West Virginia. Fourth-year head coach Matt McMahon owns a record of 61-37 (.622).
FREE THROW IMPROVEMENT
• Alabama enters Monday's contest against Murray State ranked third in the SEC in total free throws attempted (128) this season and is fourth in free throw percentage (.727) among league schools.
• The Crimson Tide's season totals were helped by an outstanding performance from the charity stripe in the team's 90-86 victory over Wichita State on Nov. 18. In that contest, Alabama sunk 31-of-33 free throws, including hitting 23-of-24 over the final 20 minutes, to finish the contest at 93.9 percent.
• The performance was the first time the Tide has shot 90 percent or better from the foul line when attempting at least 30 free throws in a game since Dec. 5, 2012 in a loss to Dayton. In that contest, UA knocked down 29-of-32 foul shots to shoot 90.6 percent.
• Freshman Kira Lewis Jr. has hit all 14 of his free throw attempts on the year and leads the Tide in the category. Alex Reese (12-of-14, 857), Dazon Ingram (14-of-17, .824) and Tevin Mack (5-6, .833) are all shooting over 80 percent from the line for the season.
BOARD WORK
• Alabama has proven to be a strong rebounding team through the early part of the 2018-19 season. The Crimson Tide owns a +6.0 advantage on the glass (36.8-30.8) and has outrebounded all five opponents it has faced this season.
• The Tide has taken advantage of its aggressiveness on the boards and owns an advantage on the offensive glass. Through five games, Alabama owns a 63-41 edge in offensive rebounds over the opposition, which averages out to a +4.4 advantage (12.6-8.2) per game. As a result, Alabama has outsored foes by +2.4 points per game in second chance points (11.4-9.0).
NEWS AND NOTES.
• Freshman Kira Lewis Jr. is the second-youngest player in NCAA Division I this season. Lewis, a native of Meridianville, Ala., who graduated early from high school, won't turn 18 until April 6, 2019. Only Pepperdine's Everett Perrot is younger, having been born on April 12, 2001.
• Last year, Alabama was the fourth-youngest team in Division I and did not have a senior on its active roster. This season, the Crimson Tide not only has four seniors on its 2018-19 roster, but will have a total of seven players who have graduated or will graduate throughout the course of the upcoming campaign. Both Avery Johnson Jr. and Riley Norris have graduated and are currently pursuing their graduate degrees. Meanwhile, Donta Hall, Dazon Ingram, Daniel Giddens, Tevin Mack and Lawson Schaffer are all on pace to earn a degree this year. Only one other school in the nation (Southern Illinois) can claim to have as many as seven players who either have graduated or will graduate on its 2018-19 roster.
• Alabama was one of only four teams to finish with a winning record in the eight-team event. The Crimson Tide, who finished fifth in the event, was joined by champion Virginia Tech (3-0), runner-up Purdue (2-1) and third-place finisher Davidson (2-1).
• Alabama won for the 47th time in 51 regular-season openers played under the arched roof of Coleman Coliseum (47-4) with its 20-point win over Southern last Tuesday night. With the victory, the Crimson Tide improved to 85-21 all-time in season openers.
• Alabama was picked to finish seventh in the Southeastern Conference by a vote of the league's media and head coaches.
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