Brian Dutcher shares takeaways of Alabama on tape

San Diego State has the unenviable task of trying to take down No. 1 overall seed Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen on Friday night. Aztecs head coach Brian Dutcher knows that Nate Oats’ Crimson Tide outfit has the potential to cause them fits when SDSU is on offense.

The length Alabama has up and down the lineup gives Dutcher pause, as tape can be deceptive in hiding how difficult the length makes passing and running offense. There are times where what Dutcher and his staff think will work on tape gets crumpled up and binned once the game gets going.

“Obviously I’ve done this long enough to know we watch on tape and we think this will work and that will work, and we’ll take advantage of that, and you step on the floor you and see their length,” Dutcher said. “We know what that is. We thought we saw a lot of things against Arizona, and you step on the floor, and [Oumar] Ballo is the biggest man on the floor by a ton. So I’m interested to see, once we get on the floor, how much length that is and what effect it has on the game.”

On top of dealing with Alabama’s defensive length, San Diego State — which plays some stellar defense — will have to contend with arguably the best player in the country at full health.

After dealing with a groin injury that limited him during the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, star freshman Brandon Miller is fully ready to go.

“It’s been really good,” Miller said. “I feel like me and Clarke (Holter) spent a lot of time with it during the break. I feel like I can just go out here and compete with my team at 100%.”

The Crimson Tide opened as a 7.5-point favorite over the Aztecs, according to FanDuel.

Alabama is the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed, and they have looked the part thus far as March Madness has unleased chaos throughout the rest of the bracket. The Crimson Tide defeated 16-seed Texas A&M Corpus Christi in the Round of 64, 96-75, before moving on to face 8-seed Maryland in the Round of 32 on Saturday. Alabama had no issues against Maryland, cruising to a 73-51 victory.

San Diego State was a popular team on upset watch in the Round of 64, facing 12-seed College of Charleston. The Aztecs proved a lot of people wrong, though, winning 63-57. After 13-seed Furman knocked off 4-seed Virginia in the opening round, San Diego State had another matchup with a double-digit seed in the Round of 32. Against Furman, San Diego State had a similar performance to Alabama in the second round. The Aztecs beat Furman 75-52 to move on to the Sweet 16.