Alabama men\u2019s basketball has some work to do. <\/p>\n
The Crimson Tide could play better defense. Turnovers need to be better limited, as well as the points off them. Free-throw shooting has room to improve, too. <\/p>\n
The good news: the Crimson Tide still managed to get out of the game against Florida State with a 109-105 win. And its the first action of the season in an exhibition game. So a lot of that is natural rust.<\/p>\n
Guard Labaron Philon led all scorers with 28 points. Guard Aden Holloway also tallied 20 points as he went 10-for-12 from the free-throw line.<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the exhibition game between Alabama and Florida State. <\/p>\n
Labaron Philon the difference<\/p>\n
Philon made a last-second decision to stay with Alabama and remove his name from the NBA Draft. And the Crimson Tide is sure glad he did.<\/p>\n
He appears to be the best bucket getter Alabama\u2019s got. <\/p>\n
Philon made an impact throughout the game, but it showed most late in the second half. Philon drove to make back-to-back buckets that gave Alabama a 91-87 lead with just under five minutes left. <\/p>\n
His scoring and free-throw shooting also proved crucial down the stretch in a tight game into which Florida State kept trying to climb back.<\/p>\n
Philon finished the day making 8 of 12 for 28 points, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc and 9-for-10 from the free-throw line. He also tallied a team-high four assists. <\/p>\n
Taylor Bol Bowen shows flashes<\/p>\n
One of the most prized pieces in Alabama\u2019s transfer portal class already looks to be money well spent. <\/p>\n
He looked like a difference maker at times for the Crimson Tide. By halftime, he had scored 11 points (3-for-4), and grabbed two rebounds, tallied an assist and stole one ball over 12 minutes. He also made multiple triples before the break. <\/p>\n
He cooled off in the second half some, but the Florida State transfer already looks like he\u2019s going to provide a threat from beyond the arc for the Alabama offense if the exhibition is any indication. At 6-foot-10, 202 pounds, Bol Bowen has a chance to thrive in this offense as the four-spot. <\/p>\n
He tallied 14 points, three rebounds, a block and a steal in his Alabama debut. Bol Bowen went 3-for-4 from deep. <\/p>\n
Keitenn Bristow provides valuable minutes<\/p>\n
Bristow didn\u2019t start, and he likely won\u2019t often be a starter this season. But he\u2019s going to give the Crimson Tide good minutes and provide quality play off the bench. <\/p>\n
He did Thursday. <\/p>\n
Bristow scored back-to-back buckets in the first half, the first that erased the deficit and the second that gave Alabama the lead up 27-25. Then he scored another. That marked three consecutive buckets from Bristow, a key piece of Alabama\u2019s first-half run that gave Alabama a 43-32 lead. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately for the Crimson Tide, it couldn\u2019t hold onto that lead. But Bristow kept working in the second half in a game that was often a one-to-two bucket battle. <\/p>\n
Bristow finished with 13 points (6 of 10 shooting) with six rebounds and two assists over 19 minutes.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
The second exhibition game for the Crimson Tide will be against Furman on Oct. 26. Then the Crimson Tide will begin the regular season against North Dakota on Monday, Nov. 3 at Coleman Coliseum. <\/p>\n
If you purchase a product or register for an account through a link on our site, we may receive compensation. By using this site, you consent to our User Agreement<\/a> and agree that your clicks, interactions, and personal information may be collected, recorded, and\/or stored by us and social media and other third-party partners in accordance with our Privacy Policy.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alabama men\u2019s basketball has some work to do. The Crimson Tide could play better defense. Turnovers need to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":219217,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-219216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/219217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}