clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Oregon St. Beavers vs. Alabama Crimson Tide Basketball Game Thread

The 2-0 Beavers face off against the 2-0 Crimson Tide from Madison Square Garden in the first Championship Round of the 2K Sports Classic.

By Brendan Donnelly's Pine Tar
Starting center Angus Brandt is 4-7 from behind the arc this year. Photo by Andy Wooldridge
Starting center Angus Brandt is 4-7 from behind the arc this year. Photo by Andy Wooldridge

Oregon St. (2-0) vs. Alabama (2-0) at Madison Square Garden - 2K Sports Classic Championship Round - 4 PM PDT / ESPN2 / KEJO 1240 AM / KPOJ 620 AM

After knocking off New Mexico St. 71-62 on Sunday, the Beavs traveled to New York City to play two games in two days. The first is against Alabama, who narrowly knocked off South Dakota St. 70-67 before blowing West Alabama out of the water 80-49.

On Friday, the winner of this matchup will play the winner of the Purdue and Villanova game, and the losers will face off earlier that day.

But first, the Beavers have Alabama to worry about. In 2011, the Crimson Tide were defeated by Florida in the second round of the SEC tournament, and suffered the same fate to Creighton in the first round of the NCAA tournament. They have just one senior on the roster, redshirt guard Andrew Steele, but have an experienced junior and sophomore class with players like Trevor Releford, Levi Randolph, and Trevor Lacey.

The 2011 Alabama team finished ranked 9th in the country in points allowed, at 58.1 per game. Luckily for the Beavers' chances, the star of that Tide team JaMychal Green has graduated, whose spot hasn't been, and likely cannot be, completely filled.

The Beavs' have showed promise this season, but have also showed suspect rebounding and defending overall, which haunted them last year. Hopefully, they've cleaned that up and can knock off the Tide on national television, hopefully propelling them more into the national spotlight.

Go Beavs!