Alabama Men's Basketball Officially Opens the Nate Oats Era with Penn on Tuesday Night Inside Coleman Coliseum

Tuesday, November 5

Tuscaloosa, Ala.

7:00 PM

Alabama

Penn

Alabama Men's Basketball Officially Opens the Nate Oats Era with Penn on Tuesday Night Inside Coleman Coliseum

11/4/2019 12:26:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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The Crimson Tide and Quakers will tipoff the 2019-20 season at 7 p.m. on SEC Network+

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama will officially open the 2019-20 men's basketball season and the Nate Oats era on Tuesday night as the Crimson Tide hosts he University of Pennsylvania (Penn) to Coleman Coliseum. The contest will tip at 7 p.m. CT and will be televised on SEC Network+.

It will mark the third meeting in series history between the two teams, with each of the previous two contests played on neutral floors. Alabama owns a 2-0 record in the all-time series, with the last coming on March 16, 1995 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, which was played in Baltimore, Md.

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The Broadcast

Tuesday's game will air on SEC Network+ with Eli Gold (play-by-play), Wimp Sanderson (analyst) and Meggi Hetzel (sideline) on the call.
The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network, Roger Hoover (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Notes You Need To Know

Prior to coming to Alabama, Oats spent the last four seasons at the University at Buffalo. While there, he led the Bulls to a 96-43 (.691) record, three MAC Tournament Championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances, including reaching the round of 32 in each of the last two seasons. Just six years ago, Oats was a math teacher and was considered one of the top high school coaches in the nation when he was the boys basketball coach at Romulus (Mich.) High School – located in the metro Detroit area.
In its lone exhibition game of the preseason, the Tide captured an impressive 93-65 win over Georgia Tech. Freshman Jaden Shackelford (21) and Kira Lewis Jr. (20) led the Tide in scoring, while Lewis also added a team-leading eight assists and seven rebounds in the win. As a team, Alabama knocked down 17 three-points (17-of-37) and owned a 44-32 advantage on the boards in the victory.
Lewis was selected to the coaches 2019-20 Southeastern Conference Preseason First Team, it was announced on Nov. 4. Lewis, who led Alabama a year ago in scoring average (13.5) and assists (2.9) per game on his way to earning all-freshman honors, was voted to the preseason second team by the media, which was announced in mid-October.
This year's Crimson Tide squad welcomes back three starters and seven letterwinners from last season's team. Oats' staff welcomed a total of 10 newcomers, which includes Javian Davis, who redshirted the 2018-19 season.

About Alabama

Alabama finished the 2018-19 season with an 18-16 overall mark and an 8-10 record in Southeastern Conference play, which tied for ninth overall.
The Crimson Tide earned the No. 1 seed in the 2019 National Invitation Tournament, meaning that UA was one of the first four teams left out of the NCAA Tournament. However, Alabama was upset in the opening round of last year's postseason, falling at home to Norfolk State in overtime, 80-79. It marked the third straight NIT in which the Tide failed to win a game.
Guard Kira Lewis Jr., who was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team, led a balanced scoring attack that featured eight Alabama players averaging at least 6.3 points per game. Three UA players averaged in double figures as Lewis' 13.5 points per game topped the Tide and ranked 18th in the SEC. Donta Hall and John Petty Jr. also averaged in double figures with 10.5 and 10.2 points per game, respectively.
Lewis also led UA in assists (2.9 apg), minutes (31.6) and free throw shooting (90-of-115, .783), while ranking second in steals (28) and threes made (54) and attempted (151). Meanwhile, Hall topped the team in total dunks (64), rebounds (8.8 rpg), blocks (1.6 bpg), double-figure contests (22) and double-doubles (13).
Herbert Jones averaged 6.4 ppg and was among the team leaders in assists (3rd – 2.0 apg) and rebounds (5th – 3.5 rpg). Considered as one of the top defenders in the SEC, Jones led Alabama with 32 steals and 17 charges taken, while his 20 blocks ranked second-best on the squad.
As a team, the Crimson Tide was outrebounded in 12 of its 34 games on the year to result in a +2.9 advantage on the glass (37.8-34.9). UA shot 44.0 percent from the field and 34.0 percent from beyond the arc on the year, while outscoring the competition by 0.4 points per game (72.0-71.6).
During conference play, Lewis led the team in scoring (13.2 ppg), assists (2.6 apg) and minutes (32.3 mpg), while Petty averaged 10.8 ppg and knocked down a team-leading 37.9 percent of his shots from beyond the arc (33-of-87). Meanwhile, Hall averaged a near double-double at 10.3 points and 8.9 rebounds per game – a number that topped the SEC in conference games only. Jones led the Tide in steals (16) against league opposition.

About Penn

The University of Pennsylvania men's team went 19-12 last year and advanced to the Ivy League Tournament for the third time in as many years with a 7-7 Ivy League mark. Three returning Quakers players have garnered All-Ivy honors during their careers, as senior AJ Brodeur has been first-team All-Ivy each of the last two years while senior Ryan Betley (2017-18) and Devon Goodman (2018-19) have been second-team picks over the last two seasons. All three will serve as captains for this year's squad, which returns nine letter winners and welcomes five newcomers.
Brodeur leads the veteran team that boasts five seniors after he averaged 17.6 points and 8.3 rebounds per game a year ago. Meanwhile, Goodman posted 13.9 points per contest and led the team in three-pointers made (57) and steals (1.7 spg).
Penn was picked to finish second in the 2019-20 Ivy League's Preseason Media Poll. Harvard received 15 of the 17 first-place votes from the media and was picked for the top spot in this year's poll with 134 voting points. The Quakers had 117 points to place second, including the other two first-place votes.
Head coach Steve Donahue begins his fifth season at Penn in 2019-20 and has a record of 67-53 (.558) over the previous four seasons. Now in his 19th as a Division I collegiate coach, Donahue also coached at Cornell (2000-10) and Boston College (2010-14) and has compiled a career record of 267-267 (.500) in 19 seasons. Donahue is the only person in Ivy League history to lead two different programs to conference championships, Cornell in 2008, 2009, 2010 and Penn in 2018. He was named the 2018 Ivy League and ECAC Coach of the Year after leading the Quakers to a 24-9 overall record and its first NCAA Tournament birth in 11 years.