Tide’s tempo
Alabama pushes pace, score with Oats
FAYETTEVILLE — Eric Musselman at the University of Arkansas and Nate Oats at Alabama are both first-year SEC men’s basketball coaches, but today’s game at Coleman Coliseum won’t be the first time they’ve faced each other.
Musselman was Nevada’s coach and Oats was at Buffalo when the Wolf Pack beat the Bison 67-62 on Nov. 25, 2016, at the Great Alaska Shootout in Anchorage.
More than three years later and 4,177 miles from Anchorage, Musselman and Oats will be on opposing benches again when the Razorbacks (15-5, 3-4 SEC) and Crimson Tide (12-8, 4-3) play at 5 p.m. in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
It’s a critical game for two teams trying to stay in the SEC race and boost their NCAA Tournament resumes after disappointing losses. South Carolina beat Arkansas 79-77 at Walton Arena on Wednesday night while LSU beat Alabama 90-76 in Baton Rouge.
The Tide had won four consecutive games before losing to the SEC-leading Tigers.
“I think Coach Oats does a great job,” Musselman said. “I really like watching his team play. I think they’re fun to watch.”
Alabama is averaging 82.5 points per game to lead the SEC and rank fifth nationally in scoring.
“They’re one of the fastest-paced teams in the country,” Musselman said. “They space the floor. They play with interchangeable parts where guys can play multiple positions.”
The Tide are led by sophomore point guard Kira Lewis (averaging 16.7 ppg) and junior guard John Petty (15.8 ppg).
“They hardly ever take a midrange shot,” Musselman said. “From an analytics standpoint, they probably do as good a job as anybody in the league with shots at the rim, free throws attempted and three-balls.”
Alabama leads the SEC in three-point shooting at 35.1% and in three-point baskets made per game at 10.4.
Petty is shooting 46.8% on three-pointers (65 of 139), senior guard James Bolden is at 36.8% (25 of 68), junior forward Alex Reese is at 34.3% (36 of 105), freshman guard Jaden Shackelford is at 32.8% (44 of 134) and Lewis at 31.5% (28 of 89).
“I like how they play,” Musselman said. “They shoot threes, they make threes. I think they’re a really, really talented team. It will be a really challenging game for sure.”
Arkansas continues to lead the nation in three-point defense at 24.6% (87 of 353).
“I think we have to be smart with what we do,” Oats said Friday when he met with reporters in Tuscaloosa. “Part of what they do taking away threes is they’re smaller. A lot of guards, and they switch a lot of ball screens.
“A lot of times, you get two guys involved in a ball screen and you have to bring help from somewhere else and it gives you some spread-out threes. Well, when [the Razorbacks] switch a ball screen, there doesn’t need to be help from anywhere else. You just have two guys guarding it, so they’re able to eliminate a lot of threes with that.
“Now, there are other ways you can make them pay for the switching. So, this might not be a game where we get 30 or 40 threes up. We might need to score more in the paint, and we might need to attack them a little more on the switches and play it differently.”
Arkansas has lost three consecutive SEC games to Kentucky, at Mississippi State and to South Carolina since winning 76-72 at Ole Miss on Jan. 11.
“We just have got to get better,” said junior guard Mason Jones, who is leading the SEC in scoring at 19.2 points per game after scoring 34 against South Carolina. “We’ve got to look at the little things that we’re doing. We’re not far off, to be honest.”
Musselman said he would like to see the Razorbacks attack the basket more after they hit 7 of 26 three-pointers against South Carolina, which dropped them to 30.1% in SEC games.
“We’ve done a really good job of taking it to the basket and drawing free throws,” he said. “I think that’s got to be a higher priority for us, finding a way to get to the cup and finding a way to draw free throws attempted.”
Musselman said he knows three-pointers need to remain a part of the offense.
“I told the team, ‘If your feet are set and you have an open three, we certainly don’t want to discourage that at all,’” he said. “But we do have to shoot a better percentage as a group.”
Musselman was asked whether the Razorbacks want to run with the Tide or try to slow them down.
“I’m not so sure we’ve run great all year,” he said. “I think we’ve run good in spurts. We need to have great transition defense, which we haven’t had. I don’t know why, because we don’t offensive rebound.
“If we don’t get back on defense, they’ve proven they can hang 90 on you easy.”