‘Bama Basketball Breakdown: McNeese brings his high-octane offense and villain Will Wade to town

Great game tonight, folks. Last year’s Southland champion, McNeese State, won 30 games in Will Wade’s first season back on the bench and earned an NCAA Tournament berth.

That man, and his trail of slime and grit, needs no introduction. Let’s just say that Nate Oats absolutely despises him and has practically done so since his first week as head coach.

And our man has never been shy about letting his feelings show for Wade.

This is getting really truncated and I’m sorry. I completely lost track of the day, with the holiday. My body and workload think it’s Sunday.

Tale of the Tape: McNeese State (1-1) at No. 2 Alabama (2-0)

Spread (total): Alabama -13.5 (167.5)

ASU KenPom: 121 (114 attack, 132 defense, 168 pace)
ASU’s Evan Miya: 83 (67 Attack, 124 Defense, 291 Pace)
ASU Bart Torvik: 74 (41 Attack, 126 Defense, 178 Pace)
Opponent NET: Q3

Alabama KenPom: 6 (3 Attack, 22 Defense, 2 Pace)
Alabama Evan Miya: 6 (3 Attack, 7 Defense, 2 Pace)
Alabama Bart Torvik: 8 (3 Attack, 14 Defense, 12 Pace)
NET Ranking: REACH

In Wade’s first season with the Cowboys, MSU went 30-4, claimed the Southland regular-season and tournament titles, boasted one of the nation’s top perimeter offenses and earned a 12th-round NCAA Tournament bid. From sub-.500 to a 55 NET ranking overnight.

Wade has never been known for very fast-paced offenses, and this year is no exception – at times, they’ve been downright glacial. But his teams have always thrived on the dual-movement system that frees up looks on the outside, emphasizing ball control while minimizing turnovers (at LSU, he even played three-point guard rotations at times). In the post, the Cowboys look for over-pursuit to provide an easy look at the basket, a heavy dose of bunnies and whoops. Defensively, it’s a half-court press system, with the guards coming up to contest the opponent’s backcourt as they cross the midcourt, while the center is positioned under the basket and the wings set to either switch on the break or prevent easy access. passes to opposing shooters.

The Cowboys are on the smaller side. The frontcourt in particular is very small – bottom third across the board and only 20% percentile in the middle. There is decent size at PG and across the backcourt in general, but that has long been a Wade foundation, and it certainly was at LSU. But that means the Cowboys aren’t rebounding well at all – not in relative terms, not in efficiency terms and not in percentage terms. They dropped a game last Friday to the tall, lanky South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Brookings because of it. SDSU big man Oskar Cluff feasted on McNeese, getting 14 boards, 14 points, 5 assists and 4 blocks. Cliff, Sherrell, Jarin, Little Mo and ‘Stache should have an absolute field day against the overmatched Pokes.

But there is talent here, especially at the guard position, and MSU will roll out three guards to start and as their base offense. Cowboys have four all guards average double figures, with a fifth very close to reaching that number. Senior Alyn Breed leads in pure average and is dangerous off the bench.

Want to guess how Breed landed at McNeese after being a starter at Providence? It won’t shock you:

Providence guard Alyn Breed has been suspended indefinitely after he was charged by local police with multiple felonies for an off-campus incident Saturday, the school said in a statement.

Indeed, the entire backcourt is filled with Power conference transfer. Sincere Parker (St. Louis) – 15.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 0.9 APG; Brandon Murray (Ole Miss) – 4.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 1.4 APG Quadir Copeland (Syracuse); 9.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.8 APG. But Jahvon Garcia and DJ Richards also return, coming off 11-PPG seasons themselves. Their one big quality is veteran PF Christian Shumate, who averaged nearly a double-double last season (13/9), and is off to another strong start this year (10/8).

Make no mistake: This will be primarily a backcourt war of attrition, with each team rolling out half a dozen shooters. ‘Bama’s defenders will have their hands full. Nate Oats and Will Wade have tended to play high-scoring games that often go off the rails, but it would behoove the Tide to concentrate their firepower where there is a clear and decisive advantage: in the post.

As I said on Friday about Arkansas State, it looks like this is a bit tougher of a matchup than the jerseys suggest. The Cowboys were 40th in the NET last year for a reason. And they got even better, even deeper and even more experienced this year. It’s the most experienced team the Tide will face all year, in fact (8th). This is going to appear on the early schedule as a NET Tier 3 competition, but will almost certainly be a high Tier 2, maybe even T1 by season’s end.

This is also a game where the defense needs to be on-lock, its rebounds excellent and ‘Bama needs to knock down its looks when it gets them, especially in the paint. This spread is narrow for a reason. This is one very good mid-major opponent the Tide faces tonight.

You bet Nate Oats has told his guys that, and he’d love to run the Cowboys — and their scumbag coach — out of the building.

This is your game thread for the evening. The game tips off at 6:00 Central and can be seen on the SEC Network.

Roll Tide and chime in below.