Alabama Basketball Has Doubleheader

Both the Alabama men’s basketball team of Coach Mark Gottfried and the Crimson Tide women’s basketball team of Coach Wendell Hudson will be trying to bounce back from losses on Wednesday in Coleman Coliseum games. Both coaches were upbeat following defeats.

On Wednesday, the Alabama men’s and women’s basketball teams will be in action on the same day in Coleman Coliseum for the second time this year. The Bama women’s team will host Florida A&M at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday. The Crimson Tide men’s team will host Tennessee State at 7 p.m.

Both teams are coming off losses. The Alabama men fell in overtime in Tuscaloosa on Saturday at the hands of Texas A&M, 86-78. The Tide women lost on the road at MTSU, 77-67, Sunday.

Gottfried, whose men’s team fell to 5-3 with the loss to the Aggies, said Tuesday that he saw “a lot of positive signs” in the Tide’s overtime defeat. “We’re disappointed,” he said. “But we put ourselves in position to win. Texas A&M is a very good team, the best we have played.”

Gottfried thinks that Alabama’s performance is evidence the Tide can be a good team.

He said except “for 27 seconds” Bama played well in regulation. Those 27 seconds saw the Aggies hit a pair of three-point shots (around an Alabama free throw) to tie the game and send it into overtime at 73-73. Bama did not score a field goal in overtime.

“But that’s 27 seconds,” Gottfried said. “There were a lot of positive things. That’s what we’re trying to build on.”

Hudson said his women’s team learned “a lot” in its loss at Middle Tennessee.

“It was a great atmosphere with a good crowd on the road,” Hudson said. “Our players never gave up and had a chance to win. We didn’t make some shots, but we played with a lot of effort. I see our team growing. I was pleased with the effort if not the outcome.”

Hudson said, “We’re playing hard. That was the first thing this team needed to accomplish. In hustle and in energy play we’re way ahead of schedule. Now we need to do things like making the right pass to the right person with a chance to make the shot.

“We need to have some confidence going into the Southeastern Conference schedule. The SEC is the best conference in the country. We have to be mentally prepared for that, and that includes having confidence.”

Hudson, in his first season as Alabama’s coach, has the Tide at 6-3.

On December 7 the Tide men and women both played with the men defeating Louisiana Lafayette 61-44 and the women defeating Sam Houston State 90-50.