It has obviously been a week of unprecedented circumstances surrounding the Alabama Men’s Basketball program. In one of the most turbulent media firestorms I can ever remember, allegations related to Brandon Miller’s involvement in the January 15th murder of Jamea Jonae Harris came to light on Tuesday after a court hearing for the two men who are charged in the killing.
While the situation has been handled extremely poorly by the University and Nate Oats from a PR standpoint, Miller has been cleared legally and will continue to play for the team unless that were to change. Miller went out on Wednesday night and had a career game against South Carolina, scoring 41 points in the overtime victory including the game winning bucket.
The Crimson Tide will now turn its focus to the Arkansas Razorbacks, a team that is finally starting to play up to the top-10 ranking it was given in the preseason. Alabama defeated Arkansas by 15 in Fayetteville in a game that was close until the Tide pulled away in the last few minutes, but Arkansas is a different team now than they were then. Star freshman Nick Smith Jr., who missed a good deal of the season, is back and excelling, scoring 26 points in the Razorbacks 32-point victory over Georgia this week.
Alabama will without a doubt have its work cut out for them on Saturday afternoon. It should be one of the wildest environments of the season, with the game being sold out and a white out being planned, but Arkansas is a very talented team who defends extremely well and can absolutely give Alabama problems if they don’t show up ready to play.
Wednesday against South Carolina was really the first time all season that Brandon Miller had to carry the team to victory himself, with the rest of the team just not showing up for the most part. If this is the case again with the Hogs coming to town, Alabama will get beat. However, the Crimson Tide will clinch at least a share of the SEC regular season title with a win and a Texas A&M loss at Mississippi State. It should be a phenomenal weekend of hoops across the South!
