Alabama enters the NCAAM Tournament as the #4 seed and will be tipping off against Hofstra on Friday afternoon. Despite the Tide losing guard Aden Holloway to a recent arrest, Alabama is still expected to take down the #13 seeded Hofstra Pride.
According to the FanDuel sportsbook, the Tide opens up favored by -11.5 points, so this one isn’t expected to be particularly close. That said, of the other three #4-#13 seed matchups, this one has the closest spread, so the odds makers definitely aren’t as enamored
with the Tide as you might expect from a #4 seed.
Oats’ teams have developed a reputation for avoiding non-rim twos, so logic would dictate that the Crimson Tide likely wants to let it fly early and often from beyond the arc. Alabama ranks fourth in the nation in adjusted tempo, while Hofstra comes in at 317th. The contrast in styles is stark. Claxton’s slow, hyperdeveloped half-court sets are almost indistinguishable from the Crimson Tide’s high-volume, fast-paced approach.
The pace disparity has been cited as one of the biggest reasons why Alabama should win handily. Few midmajors can match Alabama’s pace for 40 minutes, especially one that plays so contrary to the Crimson Tide.
With the news of Holloway’s arrest and presumed absence this weekend breaking on Monday, a massive wrench is thrown into that strategy.
Alabama is still an extremely capable offense without the Third Team All-SEC guard, but it is a fundamentally different one. With Labaron Philon Jr. fully leading the offense, the Crimson Tide relies much more on half-court execution. That is not to say that Philon won’t still pull up, or that Alabama will slow down to Hofstra’s pace, but instead that Alabama will resemble a much more traditional offense than usual.
Philon is also, somewhat ironically, the one player on the team with the green light from midrange, where he is one of the best scorers in the nation. While Alabama certainly should not feel bad about its star player operating from where he is most efficient, this does tilt the scales towards the Pride.
How Alabama looks without Holloway is going to be interesting, as is the fact that Hofstra plays an entirely different style of play from the Tide, so whose style will win out?
The game will be at 1:15 p.m. Central Time on Friday, 3/20, and will be broadcast on truTV. That’s a new one this year, but if you have most any of the main live TV streaming bundles, you should have the truTV channel. If you have HBO Max, then it will also be on there.
Stay tuned here at RBR for more coverage, and Roll Tide!
