Alabama looks to extend longest home win streak in 26 years against Florida

By WVUA 23 Digital Reporter Sutton Smith

The 13th ranked Alabama Crimson Tide will host another Top-25 matchup Wednesday against the 24th ranked Florida Gators. This is the first time since 2007  both of these teams matchup against one another ranked in the Top-25. Alabama also looks to hold onto a home win streak that currently spans 15 games, the longest home win streak for the Crimson Tide since 1988.

Alabama enters one of their toughest stretches of the season with five big games coming up. The Crimson Tide play Florida, Kentucky, Ole Miss, Tennessee, and Florida again before closing out their regular season against Arkansas. Alabama head coach, Nate Oats knows his team has a challenging road ahead but his approach is one of opportunity.

“We’ve got five straight quad-one games which is a great opportunity but also a tough stretch,” Oats said. “You can look at it one of those two ways but we look at it as an opportunity to improve our resume, play good teams […] the other side is you’re trying to win the league (SEC) and we have the toughest remaining schedule of any team in the league. We’re gonna have to play well.”

Both Alabama and Florida rank within the Top-10 nationally in offensive efficiency with the Crimson Tide ranked first, and the Gators ninth. Alabama’s defense has improved over the course of the season but it will truly be tested against a high powered Florida offense.

“Florida is a really good team,” Oats said. “They’re leading the country in rebounds per game, they’re second in offensive rebounds per game […] we didn’t do a good job of keeping (Texas) A&M off the glass so we’ll have to do better against Florida.”

The Gators grab around 44 rebounds on average per game with 16 of those on the offensive side of the ball. Texas A&M leads the nation in offensive rebounding averaging 18 per game.

The Crimson Tide played the Aggies Saturday winning 100-75. In that game, the Crimson Tide were out-rebounded 49-38 by the Aggies overall and 26-14 on the offensive side of the ball. Oats definitely wants to see improvement in that area against an even better offense in Florida, but he knows the task is just as great or greater for the Gators.

“They’re gonna have to guard us too,” Oats said. “We have the number one offense in the country […] we have to figure out how to rebound and they have to guard our guards.”

Alabama rolls out a different lineup than most schools across the country starting four guards and only one forward. Three of the four guards (Aaron Estrada, Rylan Griffin, Mark Sears) average more than 10 points per game while Latrell Wrightsell averages nine. These guards are especially lethal from behind the arc as the four make an average of 41% of their three-point attempts.

There’s no denying Alabama’s greatness on offense but, throughout the season, Oats has been asking for more from his team defensively. Although a few good performances have been put up on that end, he wants to see better defensive production.

“We’re playing our best basketball now, we’ve just got to get the defense figured out,” Oats said.

The Crimson Tide host the Gators Wednesday at 6 p.m. on ESPN2.