No. 15 Alabama Set for First SEC Road Game Wednesday Night at Florida

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The No. 15/20 Alabama will begin a stretch of three road contests over its next four SEC games when it travels to Gainesville, Fla., to take on the Florida Gators on Saturday night at 6 p.m. CT (7 p.m. ET) on ESPN2. It marks the only contest between the two teams in the regular season.

The Crimson Tide is coming off a hard-fought 73-68 victory over then-No. 14 Tennessee in Tuscaloosa on Dec. 29 in the league opener for both teams. It was Alabama's third victory over a top-15 team this season (3-0) and places the Tide as one of three teams in the nation to have defeated three ranked teams this year (Gonzaga and Ohio State).

Alabama will be looking for its third win in Gainesville over the last four trips when the Tide takes on the Gators Wednesday night. The lone loss over the last three trips to the O'Connell Center came in UA's last visit on Jan. 4, 2020 when Alabama dropped a 104-98 double overtime contest.

The Broadcast

Wednesday night's game will be available on ESPN2 with Tom Hart (play-by-play) and Jimmy Dykes (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 and Top Stipe (engineer) turning the dials. The pregame show will begin one hour prior to tipoff.

Notes You Need To Know

The Crimson Tide comes into the game ranked No. 15 by the Associated Press and dropped a spot to No. 20 in the USA Today Coaches Poll according to the most recent national rankings, which were revealed Monday afternoon.
In addition to its national rankings, Alabama is ranked in the following (as of 1/3): No. 15 Sagarin, No. 16 KenPom.com, No. 21 NCAA NET, No. 23 ESPN.com BPI. The Tide's "Best" NET wins include: Houston (No. 4), Gonzaga (No. 4), Tennessee (No. 10), Oakland (No. 70), Drake (No. 87) and Miami (No. 95).
According to the most recent KenPom rankings (as of 1/3), the Tide ranks No. 13 in the nation in offensive efficiency, No. 13 in average possession length and No. 31 in adjusted tempo. The site also ranks UA No. 46 in the nation and defensive efficiency.
The Crimson Tide is one of five SEC schools that are ranked in this week's AP poll, which is tied with the Big 12 for tops among all conferences (Big East and Pac 12 have four each). Joining Alabama from the SEC is Auburn (No. 9), Kentucky (No. 16), Tennessee (No. 18) and LSU (No. 21).
The Tide enters the contest ranked No. 2 in the SEC and No. 17 in the nation in scoring offense at 82.2 points per game. UA also leads the league in all three-point categories, checking in nationally at No. 15 in the nation in threes attempted (384), No. 32 in threes made (126) and No. 38 in threes made per game (9.7).
With the win over the Volunteers, the Crimson Tide is the only team in the country to have three wins versus teams ranked in the top 10 of the NCAA NET rankings (No. 3 Houston, No. 4 Gonzaga and No. 10 Tennessee). Alabama is second in the nation for combined Quad one and Quad 2 win at six, trailing only Michigan State (7). The Tide owns a 3-2 record vs. Quad 1 opponents (wins: Gonzaga, Houston, Tennessee; losses: at Memphis and vs. Davidson) and is 3-1 vs. Quad 2 foes (wins: Oakland, Drake, Miami, loss: Iona).
Alabama boasts the No. 1 Average Opponent NET Rank in the nation and is the only team in the top 200 of the NET Rankings to have not played a Quad 4 opponent (H: 161-358, N: 201-358, A: 241-358. In fact, the Tide joins only Jackson State, Prairie View and Mississippi Valley State as the only teams in the nation who have note played a Q4 team, with UA the only one of the four to not have a Q4 opponent remaining on its schedule.
UP NEXT: The Crimson Tide will play its first home-and-home partner of the 2021-22 season when it travels to Columbia, Mo., to take on the Missouri Tigers on Saturday, Jan. 8, at 2:30 p.m. CT on SEC Network.

About Alabama

The Crimson Tide is led by three players who average double figures in Jaden Shackelford (16.5 ppg), Jahvon Quinerly (14.9 ppg) and Keon Ellis (12.2 ppg). The trio combines to account for 53 percent (43.6 of the 82.2 points per game average), 70 percent of the three-pointers made (88 of 126), 51 percent field goals made (199 of 388) and 48 percent of the total free throws made (80 of 166).
A pair of freshmen have also made their mark through the early portion of the schedule in guard JD Davison and center Charles Bediako. Davison, a consensus five star and McDonald's All-American, leads Alabama in assists (4.4 apg) while also ranking among the team leaders at 8.4 points and 5.0 rebounds per contest. Bediako has been a force on the inside, collecting 6.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 1.9 blocks a game. Sophomore Juwan Gary has also been coming on as of late and is averaging 8.8 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.
As a team, Alabama is averaging 82.2 points per contest, which ranks second in the SEC and 17th nationally, and outscoring the competition by an average of 9.2 points per game (82.9-72.9). The Tide is averaging 9.7 threes made per game, while shooting 46.9 percent from the field, 32.8 percent from beyond the arc and 67.5 percent from the charity stripe. UA also owns a rebounding margin of +6.1 (41.1-35.0) for the year.
The Crimson Tide ranks 44th nationally in defensive efficiency entering the contest, according to KenPom.com. For the year, Alabama is allowing opponents to average 72.9 points per game while limiting foes to 42.5 percent shooting from the field and 29.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Alabama was picked to finish second in the league in voting by a select panel of both SEC and national media members. Kentucky was the preseason favorite to win this year's regular season title, followed by the Tide, Arkansas, Tennessee and Auburn to round out the top five. Both Quinerly and Shackelford were named to the SEC Preseason First Team.
The Tide holds an all-time record of 1,727-1,071-1 (.616), which includes an 816-629 (.565) record in SEC play. By capturing its 800th SEC win, Alabama joined Kentucky as the only two teams in conference history to reach the milestone. UA also became the third team in the SEC and 34th team in NCAA history to reach 1,700 program wins. Only Kentucky and Arkansas have more wins than the Crimson Tide.

About Florida

The Florida Gators are playing their first Southeastern Conference game of the season after the contest with Ole Miss was postponed due to Covid protocols within the Gators' program. The last time Florida played came on Dec. 22 when it defeated Stony Brook, 87-62, to improve to 9-3 in non-conference play and 6-1 in home games.
The Gators are led by preseason first team All-SEC honoree Colin Castleson who enters the Alabama game leads his team in scoring (14.8 ppg), rebounding (9.3 rpg) and blocks (2.5 bpg). He is joined in double figure scoring by Phlandrous Fleming Jr. (11.8 ppg) and Tyree Appleby (10.0 ppg) while Myreon Jones (9.5 ppg) and Anthony Duruji (9.1 ppg) contribute to a balanced scoring attack.
Appleby averages a team-leading 3.1 assists and 1.6 steals per contest and tops Florida in free throw percentage (89.2 percent). Meanwhile, Jones leads the team in minutes (31.2 mpg) and threes made (19) and attempted (63).
The Gators enter the game as one of the top defensive teams in the nation, ranked No. 28 overall in defensive efficiency according to KenPom.com. Florida ranks among the nation's defensive leaders in several other categories, checking in at 20th in the country in both blocks (5.7) and steals (9.9) per game and rank 24th in turnovers forced per game (17.3). Those numbers help Florida limit opponents to just 59.9 points per game which ranks No. 29 in the nation. Only one of Florida's 12 opponents the season have scored over 70 points while limiting seven foes to 62 points or less on the year.
For the season, Florida is outscoring the competition by 14.1 points per game (74.0-59.9) which ranks 37th in the nation. The Gators are shooting 43.0 percent from the field and 31.2 percent from beyond the arc while shooting 72.8 percent from the charity stripe. Florida also owns a +4.1 rebounding margin on the year (37.3-33.2).
Florida head coach Mike White is in his seventh season at Florida and his 11th year as a collegiate head coach. During his seven years in Gainesville, White has guided the Gators to a record of 132-78 (.629) and owns a career record of 233-118 (.664).

Alabama-Florida Series Notes

Wednesday's game will mark the 147th meeting on the hardwood between Alabama and Florida, which is the eighth-most games UA has played against any one opponent. The Tide owns a 76-70 edge in the all-time series.
In the only contest played between the teams a year ago, the Crimson Tide snapped an eight-game home losing streak to the Gators with an 86-71 victory exactly one year to the day on Jan. 5, 2021 in Tuscaloosa, Ala. A box score from that contest can be found below.
Alabama has won two of the last three games played at Florida, with the lone loss coming in a 104-98 double overtime defeat on Jan. 4, 2020 in head coach Nate Oats' first season at the helm. The defeat snapped the Tide's two-game winning streak in the O'Connell Center. Prior to that, UA dropped 10 consecutive games in Gainesville.
Alabama owns an all-time record of 20-42 when playing Florida in Gainesville, Fla., and has dropped 11 of the last 13 games played at the O'Connell Center.
Despite three of the last seven games in the series, Alabama has still dropped 13 of the 16 and 24 of the last 30 games played between the two teams.
Fifteen of the last 22 games in the series have been decided by 10 points or less.

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