Alabama hands Georgia the Tide’s latest bounce-back beatdown

Bad luck in America? The next team to play Alabama after the best team in the nation doesn’t play like that.

Georgia was the latest casualty on Saturday to feel the full wrath of the Tide three days after Alabama’s first SEC loss of the season in Knoxville.

Angry Alabama scored in 14 of his first 15 possessions and took a 20-point lead in less than seven minutes after a dinner sell-out, the third-to-last home game of the season. The lead swelled to 30 and then 40 points, hitting 50 twice before Alabama finally won 108-59.

“It was another game after a loss that I felt like our boys were ready to play,” said coach Nate Oats. “Hopefully we don’t have too many of those left, if at all – after losses, that is.”

Coleman Coliseum once again played the role of a rage dream for Alabama, which overran Vanderbilt by 57 points last month after losing to Oklahoma and beat Florida by 26 two weeks later after a subpar road win over LSU.

Saturday’s win was Alabama’s 11th of the season by 20 points or more, four by 30 points or more. That includes three SEC games won by at least 40 points: Saturday’s win over Georgia, the 57-point win over Vanderbilt, and a 40-point home win over LSU in January. The last SEC team to win three conference games by at least 40 points was Kentucky in 1955-56 SEC network.

“Two of them were after losses,” Oats noted. “I think our boys react well to defeats.”

With a 98-49 win over Mississippi State in 2005, the 49-point winning margin is the third-largest in school history for an SEC game. Only this season’s 57-point win over Vanderbilt and a 1947 win over Ole Miss over 53 points were rather one-sided.

Alabama’s 108 points was a season high and most of the program since it scored 115 in a February 2021 win over Georgia that set a school record for an SEC game.

“We have offensive firepower that comes with a really good defensive team,” Oats said. “We scored 108 goals, so people will talk about our offense. Our defense is actually ranked ahead of our offense on all efficiency metrics.

“I think when you get a defensive group together with some offensive firepower, you have those games where you kind of get on fire and blow out a team.”

Alabama is #3 on KenPom.com’s defensive efficiency metric behind Tennessee and UCLA. His offensive efficiency ranks 13th.

“We told our group from day one that we should only decide on margin of victory, not win or lose,” Oats continued. “For example, our defense has to be good enough to carry us even when we’re not shooting. I feel like that’s the way it is for the most part.”

As early as Saturday’s opening tip, it was clear that Alabama had its last chance to put a wrecking ball in the record book. It hit its first three shots, all three pointers, and launched 4-of-5 from beyond the arc. Guard Mark Sears hit his first five threes after scoring just two points in Wednesday night’s loss to Tennessee, and Brandon Miller amassed 14 points before going to the bench to a standing ovation seven minutes into the contest.

“Brandon was up and running early this morning,” Oats said. “It’s nice that Sears can do some recording again.”

Sears finished with 17 points in 5-of-8 three-point shooting in just 19 minutes, while Miller had 21 points in 3-of-5 from deep in 21 minutes and hit 500 points in his debut season. Freshman Noah Clowney was also efficient, scoring 12 goals in 17 minutes, including 2-of-4 in triples.

As a team, Alabama shot 16 of 34 to three points for a best 47.1 percent of the season. Alabama also set a season high by shooting 61.9 percent from the field and overtaking Georgia 49-26. The 23-rebound margin was Alabama’s highest for an SEC game since Oats became coach in 2019.

“I’ve talked a lot about being able to rebound on a brace,” Oats said. “I thought we did well.”

After struggling with 19 turnovers in Knoxville, Alabama signed 11 on Saturday but gave away 26 assists, the second most of the season.

“Yahvon [Quinerly] had six assists and three turnovers,” Oats said. “But besides him with three [turnovers], no one had more than one each. Jaden Bradley had seven assists and no turnovers. Rylan Griffen had four assists and no turnovers. Happy with how we moved the ball.”

Oats let his bench carry the load in the second half. Junior forward Nick Pringle had a season-high 19 points, including 13 after halftime on a 6-of-7 shot, and completed his double-double with a team-best 12 rebounds.

“I’m happy for him because he was a little frustrated that he wasn’t playing that much not that long ago and just kept working hard,” Oats said. “We put him on the scout team maybe a month or so ago just to get him more reps.”

Pringle, who won Oats’ hard hat for his blue-collar points, was credited with three dunks and one missed dunk late in the second half, dampening the audible anticipation of the sold-out crowd.

“The air is kind of different up there,” Pringle said. “It’s quite nice to have the athletic ability that I have. I’m just blessed man.”

Those in attendance included football coach Nick Saban, who was making his second appearance of the season after seeing a loss in Kentucky in January, and former star Herbert Jones, who was released by the New Orleans Pelicans during the NBA All-Star hiatus came home.

Earlier in the day, Alabama was selected by the NCAA men’s basketball committee as the current No. 1 overall pick for next month’s NCAA tournament.

“If we’re going to do business here over the next three weeks, hopefully we’re going to play the NCAA in Birmingham and we can get as big a Pro-Alabama there as we can,” Oats said. “[The crowd] is great for our boys. It shows you at what level we have reached the program. Because my first year here, we didn’t get all these sellouts – not for [an opposing] Team ranking under 500 in the SEC.”

Alabama improved to 23-4, their best start to the program from the 1975-76, 1976-77, and 1986-87 seasons. His SEC record grew to 13-1, surpassed only by the school’s undefeated 14-0 conference mark in 1955-56.

But Alabama has yet to fend off Texas A&M to claim an SEC regular-season title and No. 1 SEC tournament title. The Aggies beat Missouri on Saturday to remain a game behind Alabama, 12-2. Texas A&M hosts Alabama in the regular season finals on March 4th.

Alabama heads to South Carolina on Wednesday, which improved to 3-11 in the SEC with a win over LSU on Saturday.

Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @micerodak.