By Chris DePew
TideFans.com Staff
Dec. 29, 2016
Where to watch: Stetson (6-8) at Alabama (6-5) – Today 7 p.m. Central, Coleman Coliseum, SEC Network Plus (online only)
Who to watch: Donta Hall. The sophomore center has started the last four games but has been invisible offensively for the last two. Being held to just two points against Clemson was bad enough, but instead of bouncing back versus Arkansas State, Hall got bogged down with foul trouble and finished with a modest five points and four rebounds in just 17 minutes. His four blocked shots were nice, but frankly Bama is long on hustling, gritty guys who do the little things and painfully short on players who can score actual baskets. For a hot minute Hall looked like he could fill that role by attacking the glass for putback dunks, but like everyone else in crimson he hasn’t sustained any success for more than a couple of games in a row. The danger for him is not so much losing minutes to Jimmie Taylor as it is having coach Avery Johnson move to a smaller lineup for longer stretches and then move on to Galin Smith next fall when Bama’s most-hyped recruiting class in years arrives on campus.
What to watch for: Taking care of business efficiently. While 10 other SEC teams start league play tonight, the Crimson Tide will play an anonymous team from an anonymous conference in front of what figures to be a sparse crowd. But the one thing Alabama has going for it this year is that it has beaten the teams it is supposed to, and almost always by a healthy margin. If it can resist the temptation to give in to mental lethargy and instead play a sharp game to quickly put the Hatters away, it will set a positive tone entering two winnable games next week in the beginning of the conference schedule.
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