Brandon Miller continues elite play in Alabama's top-15 win over Michigan State
The Alabama men’s basketball team has moved to a 5-0 start for the first time since the 2017-18 season. After starting the year with wins over Longwood, Liberty, South Alabama and Jacksonville State, the Crimson Tide finally got its first taste against top competition, and the result was an 81-70 victory over No. 12 Michigan State in Portland (Ore.) in the Phil Knight Invitational.
Freshman Brandon Miller continued his exceptional play against the Spartans, as he led both teams in scoring with 24 points. The freshman phenom also tied for a game-leading nine rebounds while adding two blocks. He shot an eye-popping 57.1% from beyond the arc, converting four of his seven attempts.
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Noah Gurley (12 points), Noah Clowney (10) and Jahvon Quinerly (10) all got into the double digits. Granted, Alabama wasn’t as hot from three-point range (34.8% on 23 attempts) as they were when they hit 45.7% on 46 attempts against Jacksonville State last week, but they were still able to walk away with a sizable victory over a really good basketball team.
Miller has simply been phenomenal so far this season.
Coming out of Cane Ridge High School in Antioch (Tenn.), the On3 Consensus rankings for 2022 had him rated as a five-star talent who checked in at No. 14 overall, the No. 5 small forward and No. 1 player from the state of Tennessee. So far, he’s lived up to that recruiting hype — and then some.
After putting up 14 points and 13 rebounds in his Crimson Tide debut against Longwood on Nov. 7, Miller has averaged 23 points and 8.3 rebounds while hitting 63.3% of his three-point attempts. He’s also been extremely effective on the defensive end, where he’s averaging 1.2 blocks and using his length to cause problems for opponents.
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He’s also the only Alabama player averaging over 30 minutes per game (31.6).
Nate Oats is getting quality play from a lot more than just Miller, too. Transfer Mark Sears had a season-low seven points while going 0-for-4 from beyond the arc, but he added five rebounds. Plus, his five assists against Michigan State tied a season-high. The Crimson Tide also got heavy contributions from Clowney (three steals) and Charles Bediako (two blocks).
Things won’t be slowing down for Alabama anytime soon either. After Thursday’s win, the Tide will turn around and play No. 20 UConn on Friday night. Tipoff is set for 8:30 p.m. CT (9:30 ET). The game is set to air on ESPN. Stay tuned for more coverage of Alabama basketball from the team here at BamaInsider.
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