OXFORD, Miss. — Alabama basketball stayed in control of the SEC regular season title race on Wednesday night with a 103-88 road win at Ole Miss.
Playing again without starting guard Latrell Wrightsell, who missed a third consecutive game with a head injury, Alabama looked completely lost for the first 15 minutes of the game.
The 14th-ranked Crimson Tide stormed back from down 14 points early in the game to score 64 in the second half and ultimately win by 15, while tying the SEC record (’95-96 Kentucky) with nine 100-point games in a season in the process.
Here are my thoughts from the game:
1. Davin Cosby steps up in his opportunity.
Redshirt freshman Davin Cosby has ridden the bench for the majority of the season. Being the fourth ‘small’ guard on the team, he’s been stuck behind the likes of Mark Sears, Aaron Estrada and Wrightsell for major minutes, with all of those guys being seniors with much more experience.
But with Wrightsell out and Alabama’s backcourt struggling a bit over the past two games, head coach Nate Oats decided to reward Cosby with some minutes after a strong week of practice.
In 13 minutes — his highest since Dec. 23 — Cosby erupted for a career-high 15 points on five made threes, four of which came in the second half while working to put the Rebels away.
After the game, Oats went on and on about how proud he was of Cosby because of the way he worked in practice. Oats said Cosby has been on scout team all year, and this week was emulating Ole Miss’ leading scorer Matthew Murrell. He went 11-for-22 from deep in practice while on the scout team, which translated directly to his 5-for-10 shooting night in Oxford.
“He’s always a good attitude, he’s always worked hard, and he’s never lost confidence,” Oats said. “That’s hard to do when you’re not playing much.”
Oats raved about Cosby’s confidence, which has never waivered even though he’s logged multiple DNP’s throughout SEC play. Perhaps no one was more happy for Cosby than his teammates, who rushed to embrace him on the court when the clock hit zero after the career game he had.
Oats still seemingly doesn’t know when exactly Wrightsell will be back, as he’s said he’s not going to rush his return from a head injury. After seeing Cosby’s performance on Wednesday, it provides him with a little more depth at the guard spot that he didn’t know he had down the stretch.
2. Aaron Estrada makes Alabama history.
Estrada has flirted with a triple-double in multiple games this year, but this time he finally got it, becoming the first Alabama player to do so since Kira Lewis in 2020 and just the fourth player in program history to accomplish that feat.
Estrada’s final stat line was 18 points, 10 rebounds, 10 assists and four steals. He was simply all over the floor all night long.
He didn’t hesitate to shoot the ball, making 2-of-4 attempts from three, finished well inside, and continued to be one of the best rebounding guards in the entire country, grabbing four offensive rebounds to lead the team.
“I think he’s getting comfortable in the offense,” Oats said. “He’s figuring out where to get his shots. When he can attack, when not, how to find the shooters that are around him.”
After the game, Estrada said he wasn’t focused on the triple-double, but that he was just trying to lose himself in the game.
“I didn’t know I was close to the triple double, I was just out there trying to get the win,” Estrada said.
It’s hard to quantify just how impressive a triple-double is in college basketball, but the fact that it’s only happened four times in Alabama basketball history even with the talent that has come through this program tells you a whole lot.
“It’s awesome,” Oats said. “Think about all the pros we’ve had come through here. Seven guys either get drafted or get a guaranteed contract. Only one of them, Kira Lewis, has had a triple double since I’ve been here.”
They say guard play is one of the biggest things that helps you win in March. With Mark Sears playing at an All-American level and Aaron Estrada playing well enough to hover his stat line around a triple-double, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better backcourt in the SEC, or the country.
3. The ‘middle 8’ changed the game.
Many coaches consider the ‘middle eight’ to be the most important minutes in an entire basketball game. That is, the last four minutes of the first half and the first four minutes of the second half.
It’s been an area where Alabama has struggled in a number of games this season, but last night it was where the Crimson Tide took its lead and never looked back.
With five minutes to go in the first half, Oats called a timeout after an Allen Flanigan dunk extended the Ole Miss lead to 14, its biggest of the game. Over the following five minutes of the half, Alabama outscored the Rebels 16-5, trimming the lead to three by halftime.
To open the second half, Alabama outscored Ole Miss by the first media timeout, making the score of the ‘middle eight’ (technically the middle nine) 31-12 Alabama’s way, resulting in a 5-point Crimson Tide lead.
“Those eight minutes were probably our best eight minutes defensively,” Oats said. “I tell our guys, we want to play fast, it’s a lot easier to play fast when you’re actually getting stops. You don’t have to take the ball out of the net. […] Our offense will get better if we play better defense. I thought we were able to get some transition buckets.”
Alabama’s defense forced five turnovers and easily looked the best it had all game during that span. The defense has been suspect all season, but when the team finds itself and locks in for even just a few possessions defensively, it completely opens up and changes the game with how lethal the offense is.
See also: