Alabama Welcomes ETSU for Tuesday Night Showdown

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama will play its penultimate game in 2020 when it welcomes the East Tennessee State Buccaneers to Coleman Coliseum on Tuesday night at 6:30 p.m. CT (SEC Network+). The contest will mark the Tide's fourth game across a 10-day span, which began on Dec. 12 vs. Clemson.

Tuesday's contest marks just the fourth meeting between the teams in series history and the first since squaring off on the hardwood on Dec. 1, 2004 when UA picked up a 114-77 victory – the second-highest scoring total in program history. The Crimson Tide owns a 3-0 lead in the all-time series with all three contests coming under the arched roof of Coleman Coliseum.

Alabama lost its first home game of the season when the Tide fell in a heartbreaker to Western Kentucky, 73-71. The Crimson Tide held a 70-67 lead with just over two minutes left to play, however, the Hilltoppers would outscore UA 6-1 the rest of the way to secure the road victory. A full recap and box score from that contest can be found on page 3.

The Broadcast

Tuesday's game will be available on SEC Network+ with Roger Hoover (play-by-play) and Trevor Releford (analyst) on the call.
The radio broadcast can be heard on the Crimson Tide Sports Network with Chris Stewart (play-by-play) and Bryan Passink (analyst) on the call. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Team Notes

According to KenPom.com, Alabama's strength of schedule ranks No. 55 in the non-conference which is fourth-best among all SEC teams. The seven teams the Tide has faced owns a combined record of 34-16 (.680). It will not get any easier for UA as its next five opponents are a combined 21-7 (.750). When totaling together the first 12 teams on Alabama's schedule, opponents own a total record of 55-23 (.705). Furthermore, five of the opening 12 opponents are ranked in the Ken Pomeroy top-40 RPI, while nine are among the top-80 (all numbers as of 12/21).
Crimson Tide starting guards Jaden Shackelford (12.3 ppg), John Petty Jr. (12.0 ppg) and Jahvon Quinerly (11.4 ppg) have combined to average 35.7 of the Tide's 75.6 points per game average – approximately 47 percent of the team's total output.
John Petty Jr. has made a team-leading 13 three-pointers on the year, pushing his career total to 247 made threes. He now needs only 17 more treys to become the program's all-time leader in the category, which is currently held by Brian Williams (1996-99) who made 263 career threes at Alabama. Furthermore, his 652 career attempts from deep is 87 shy of breaking Williams' program record of 738 three-point shots.
Alabama boasts four players who average in double figures in Herbert Jones (14.0), Jaden Shackelford (12.3), John Petty Jr. (12.0) and Jahvon Quinerly (11.4). Together, the four combine to account for 49.7 of the Tide's 75.6 points per game – approximately 66 percent of the total scoring average.
After playing four of its first five games this season away from Coleman Coliseum, the Crimson Tide is in the midst of a four-game homestand, which began on Dec. 15 vs. Furman and continued with the Western Kentucky game on Dec. 19 and Tuesday's East Tennessee State contest. The home stretch will conclude next Tuesday, Dec. 29, in the SEC opener vs. Ole Miss.
Reaching the 80-point mark usually means good things for the Crimson Tide. This season, Alabama is a perfect 4-0 on the year when scoring 80 or more points and 0-3 when failing to reach the mark. Last season, UA had 16 games of scoring 80 or more points which was second-best in program history (program record is 17 which was set on three occasions – 1986-87, 1978-79 and 1976-77). The Tide went 12-4 in those contests bringing its record to 16-4 when reaching 80 points in a game under second-year head coach Nate Oats.

About Alabama

Alabama enters Tuesday's contest against East Tennessee State sporting a 4-3 record on the season. The Crimson Tide dropped its first home game of the season (2-1) in its previous contest, falling to Western Kentucky, 73-71, in the final seconds. The contest featured 18 lead changes and 14 ties with neither team leading by more than six points throughout the night.
Four Crimson Tide players are averaging 11.0 or more points per game for head coach Nate Oats in the early part of the season. Forward Herbert Jones (14.0 ppg), along with guards Jaden Shackelford (12.3 ppg), John Petty Jr. (12.0 ppg) and Jahvon Quinerly (11.4 ppg) are each averaging in double figures.
Jones, considered one of the top defensive players in the entire nation, leads the team in rebounding (6.9 rpg), three-point field goal percentage (.545, 6-of-11), charges taken (3), Blue Collar Points (167.5, 23.9 BCP per game) and Hard Hat Awards (4). He enters the ETSU contest with much improved offensive numbers. In addition to averaging double digits, Jones is collecting 2.1 assists per contest, while shooting 47.9 percent from the field (34-of-71).
The trio of Petty (13-of-46), Shackelford (11-of-35) and Quinerly (7-of-22) have combined to hit 30 of the Tide's 61 three-pointers (49.2 percent and have 103 of the team's 208 (49.5 percent) total attempts from beyond the arc.
As a team, Alabama is outscoring the opposition by 4.0 points per contest (75.6-71.6) while shooting 40.7 percent from the field, 29.3 percent from deep and 70.7 percent from the charity stripe.
This season, the Tide welcomed back four starters and five of its top seven scorers off last year's team, three were named as All-SEC performers a year ago. Petty (Second Team All-SEC), Shackelford (All-Freshman) and Jones (All-Defensive) all earned a spot on the postseason teams. Both Petty and Jones tested the NBA waters, with Petty, who was one of the last players to withdraw his name, announcing his return in early August and Jones in mid-June.
Alabama was predicted to finish fifth overall as voted on by a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Additionally, Petty All-SEC Preseason First Team honors by both the coaches and media members, while Jones earned a spot on the preseason second team as voted on by the league's head coaches. Petty was selected to the 2020 Jerry West Award Watch List for the nation's top shooting guard. He was also tabbed preseason All-SEC by Blue Ribbon Yearbook.
Head coach Nate Oats is in his second season at the helm of the Crimson Tide program and owns a record of 20-18 (.526) during his time at the Capstone. Oats, who is in his sixth season as a collegiate head coach, owns a career record of 116-61 (.655).

About East Tennessee State

East Tennessee State comes into Tuesday's contest sporting a 4-3 overall mark on the season, including wins in four of its last five contests. Most recently, the Buccaneers capped a four-game homestand with a 62-53 victory over Lee University last Saturday afternoon.
ETSU is led by guard Ledarrius Brewer who is averaging team highs of 15.1 points and 28.5 minutes per contest. Guard David Sloan is second on the team in scoring (9.3 ppg) and tops the Bucs in assists (4.0 apg) and three-point shooting (50.0 percent, 9-of-18).
As a team, the Buccaneers are one of the premier defensive teams in its league and are holding the opposition to 58.9 points per game and just 35.8 percent shooting from the floor and 34.2 percent from deep. Offensively, ETSU is outscoring the opposition by 6.0 points (64.9-58.9) while shooting 40.2 percent from the field and 28.2 percent from beyond the arc.
ETSU returned three plays from last year's team that finished 30-4 on the season, which included capturing the SoCon regular season and tournament titles. Overall, the Bucs lost approximately 95 percent of their scoring, 89 percent of their rebounding and 90 percent of their minutes from last season's historic team who became just the fourth squad in SoCon history to win 30 games in a season.
This year's squad returned only three letterwinners and welcomed 11 newcomers, which is tied for the second-most among NCAA Division I teams (Arkansas brought in 12). ETSU was picked to finish third in the SoCon in 2020-21, with Furman, who the Tide defeated by a score of 83-80 back exactly one week ago, was picked to win the league.
Head coach Jason Shay is in his first season as a Division I head coach. An assistant coach at ETSU the last five seasons, Shay was named the 17th head coach in program history on May 6, 2020, replacing former head coach Steve Forbes who left for Wake Forest following the 2019-20 campaign.

Alabama-East Tennessee State Series History

Saturday's game will mark the fourth meeting in series history between the two teams and first meeting since squaring off on Dec. 1, 2004. In that contest, Alabama went on to a big 114-77 victory which still stands as the second-most points scored in program history. The Tide also set a then-program record with 19 made threes in that contest (which was broken last year with 22 made threes at Auburn), while former standout Ronald Steele set the single-game school record for assists with 18.
The Crimson Tide has never lost to the Buccaneers, owning a record of 3-0 in head-to-head meetings, with all three contests coming under the arched roof of Coleman Coliseum.
The only other meetings between the squads came in back-to-back seasons on Dec. 7, 1983 (won 87-64) and Dec. 3, 1984 (won 100-76).

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Alabama Welcomes ETSU for Tuesday Night Showdown

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Herbert Jones

John Petty Jr.

Jahvon Quinerly

Jaden Shackelford

University of Alabama Athletics

Alabama Welcomes ETSU for Tuesday Night Showdown

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Herbert Jones

John Petty Jr.

Jahvon Quinerly

Jaden Shackelford

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