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No. 4 Arizona (8-1 SU, 8-1 ATS) meets Alabama (6-4 SU, 5-5 ATS) from Phoenix at the Footprint Center at 11pmET in Jerry Colangelo's Hall of Fame Series.
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Alabama had two starters returning from a 31-win team. They lost star forward Brandon Miller to the NBA, but did return guard Mark Sears (12.5ppg LY), adding Hofstra transfer Aaron Estrada (20.2ppg LY) and North Dakota State transfer Grant Nelson (17.9ppg, 9.3rpg LY), but there have been growing paints. The Tide have lost three of their last four games to Clemson, Purdue and Creighton, while beating Arkansas State by 24 on Dec. 4.
In their last game, they fell at No. 8 Creighton 85-82 as a 7-point dog. Sears scored 19 points on 9-of-16 shooting to lead Alabama, while Nick Pringle (6-10, 230) added 15 points and seven rebounds before fouling out. Alabama shot 47% from the floor, but just 18% from long range (4 of 23). Creighton shot 56% from the field and 21 of 29 from the line (72%).
Alabama is ranked 9th according to KenPom and is first in Adjusted Offensive Efficiency. Sears leads the team with 21.2 points per game and 3.6 assists on 56% shooting (48.1% 3pt). Estrada adds 14.4 points and 3.0 assists on 44.7% shooting (40 3pt). The defensive part of the game is where Alabama has struggled. They allow 77.6 points per game (315th) on 45.1% shooting (292nd) and 33.6% from long range. Offensively, they average 92.1 points (3rd) on 49% shooting (30th) and 39.1% from long range (18th).