Freshmen show out in Alabama basketball's 75-54 victory over Longwood

The Alabama Crimson Tide’s men’s basketball program returned to the hardwood on Monday night. Nate Oats and his group were looking to start the season off on the right foot following a 2021-2022 campaign that resulted in a quick exit from the NCAA Tournament.

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Bama responded well in the offseason, gaining multiple additions via the transfer portal and landing the No. 7 overall recruiting class in the 2022 cycle. Those new pieces gave fans of the Tide plenty of reason for excitement as the team defeated Longwood in convincing fashion at home tonight.

Led by their talented true freshmen, Alabama beat the Lancers by a score of 75-54. Here are BamaInsider’s main takeaways from the Tide’s season opening victory.

Alabama’s true freshmen put on a show, Tide execute well on defense

*** The main storyline of Saturday’s game was the play of Bama’s true freshmen. Alabama’s group of Brandon Miller, Jaden Bradley, Noah Clowney, and Rylan Griffen combined for 48 of the teams’ 75 total points on Monday night.

Griffen, a top-50 prospect from Texas, tied for the Alabama lead in scoring with 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting in 27 minutes. Miller, who was a five-star coming out of high school, recorded a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Bradley turned it up in the second half, finishing with 11 points on 3-of-5 shooting. As for Clowney, the 6-foot-10 forward was efficient, scoring nine points on 57 percent shooting from the field.

*** It is hard not to look at the stat sheet and take notice of Bama’s shooting from the outside. Alabama could not get it going all night, connecting on only three of their 28 attempts from beyond the arc. The player who was the most efficient from distance was Noah Clowney (1-of-4). Four different Bama players took a three against Longwood but could not convert on the night.

*** Although they were inefficient on their three-pointers, Oats and his staff should be happy with Alabama’s work on the boards. The Crimson Tide recorded 67 rebounds against Longwood, which is encouraging for a team that averaged 39.6 rebounds per contest last season. Even more impressive is that 22 of the Tide’s rebounds were offensive rebounds.

Miller led the way with 13 total rebounds, Charles Bediako had 12, Clowney had 11, and Mark Sears had 10. Bama also had nine blocks on the night, three of those coming from JuCo transfer Nick Pringle.

*** Alabama will face much tougher opponents throughout the season, but their defense was a bright spot on Monday. The Tide held the Lancers to just 19-of-71 shooting from the field, a shooting percentage of just 26.7 percent. Longwood also only shot 5-of-13 from distance.

*** Another area of concern for Alabama besides their three-point shooting was their turnovers. Bama had 19 turnovers against Longwood, though the Lancers were only able to record 11 points off turnovers. Nimari Burnett (missed the entirety of last season) had five turnovers, while Mark Sears also had five turnovers.

*** Speaking of Sears, all eyes were on the Tide’s point guard transfer from Ohio. With no Dom Welch on the court yet, it was going to be interesting to pay attention to the impact that Sears made. On the night, Sears finished with 12 points on 2-of-11 shooting; he did, however, shoot 7-of-8 from the free throw line and had five assists as well as 10 rebounds.

Next up, the Tide will take on Liberty at home on Friday night. Tip-off for that game is set for 7:00 p.m. Central

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