Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: W v UAFM tuscaloosa.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Welcome to the low tide here on 90.7, the capstone W v UAFM. I'm Joe Schottz, joined by Adam hambright. And, Adam, how we feeling today?
[00:00:26] Speaker A: Still? I'm still good. We had some disappointing performances over the weekend, but we've got a lot more to be happy about. So I'm sure we'll get the bad stuff out of the way first. But then, still pretty good weekend for Alabama athletics.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: Yeah, it was overall a good weekend, but like you said, adam, let's start with kind of the big negative of the weekend. Alabama men's basketball playing Tennessee college game day was here for the first time in it that shows history, Alabama went back to the Crimson Tide uniforms, the retro uniforms, which they were technically undefeated in at one. And yeah, unfortunately, the Crimson Tide, though, just could not get it done. They kind of fell away in the end. Alabama only made two of their last 13 field goal attempts, and Tennessee walked away victorious 81 to 74. So just an all around kind of gut punch game.
It was kind of the phrase that was thrown around a lot. Adam, let's just get kind of your maybe initial thoughts on it.
[00:01:33] Speaker A: Yeah, well, like you were saying, game day was there, right? And so you just had this buzz around. You know, we've had sellouts before.
That game, like stadium filled up quick, and then you're in there.
Most of the people are actually participating in the wide out. People were loud from start to finish. It was a great atmosphere. And then you had, in the first half, Tennessee got out to about a ten point lead, Alabama comes back, cuts it to one. Tennessee gets back out to about a ten point lead. Alabama comes back and then takes the lead going into halftime. And I felt good. Most of the people I was talking to felt good about it. And then the second half still leading for a good majority of it, at least halfway through, and then all of a sudden couldn't make shots. I mean, defense played probably one of their best games of the year so far, especially considering who they were playing against, top five team, leading scorer in the SEC, and connect and they're just shutting them down.
But then the strength of the team all season has been the offense, and then all of a sudden can't make a shot. I think you probably know the official number off the top of your head.
I think it was about the last seven or eight minutes, only hit one field goal, but it was just the whole game. I thought Alabama was going to be able to pull it out, especially with what happened in the first half and in the second half just not able to hit shots. And really you still had Mark Steers still had 22, Estrada had 16, Nick Pringle 13 points. But then the guys that you've seen step up, Roland Griffin only had five points in this one. Then you had Grant Nelson only had three points and then he fouls out.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: About six minutes.
[00:03:30] Speaker A: Yeah, about six minutes left in the game. He fouls out. That was a huge loss down the stretch. Might have been able to help out on a couple of those shots that Tennessee was able to make to keep Alabama out of reach.
I wasn't a huge fan of the offensive foul called to get him out of the game, but it happens. I still think Alabama should have won the game.
I think this might.
Alabama has finally shown themselves that they can play good defense against top competition. So now you got two games left. You have Florida, you have Arkansas.
I would expect them to go out and win those two games.
I mean, it really depends on their mindset. Hopefully their mindset is like me, you've shown what you can do. You just got to get the offense to step up in those big situations. I think with that performance we've talked about all year how bad the defense has been and that was what was going to keep them from making a run in the tournament. But seeing that performance, I'm upset that they lost, but I think it might be what has finally shown us know, if this team plays like that with a little bit better offense late in the game, they could actually make a run.
[00:04:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this was a game that Alabama up until.
Let's see, at what point was it? They had 13 minutes left, finally found it. They were up seven against Tennessee and looked like you said, we're going to win that game. So definitely I think this game, as much as the negative is going to be that Alabama lost and kind of fell down the stretch and maybe should have won. Alabama has shown that maybe now they can finally compete and play defense effectively enough to beat some of these top ten five teams that they're going to run into down the stretch here, especially if they make a run. So it's just one of those games where it's kind of a tough break and a tough pill to take because Tennessee, Adam, you kind of brought it up. They have a really good offense. The SEC's leading score in Dalton Connect, he was out, you know, five of 14 shooting was one of seven from three, had four fouls. It was not a good game by him. But what kind of Tennessee did was they had Sakai, Ziegler and Adu kind of carry them in that second half. They combined for 23 points in the second half and Alabama only had mark Sears and double figures for the second half. So it turned into kind of a bad matchup down the stretch with what Alabama was not doing and what Tennessee was able to, you know, it's just a just.
[00:06:23] Speaker A: And another thing, too, like how I was talking about like, you know, he fell out. We had a couple other people get into that three to four foul range. A bunch of people from Tennessee were in that area as well. They just didn't have anybody actually fell out. And I don't know if there's any team in the country that is more physical than Tennessee. The way that they play. They play really physical on defense. We saw it on offense, a know they were know seeking the contact. And that's another thing. This season when teams have played physical with Alabama, they've struggled. And this was the first game you've kind of seen them actually be able to battle back, be physical themselves, even with a smaller lineup than who they were playing against. And if they're able to play like that against a team that's not as physical, say, in the SEC tournament or the NCAA tournament, and you're able to play like that and possibly stay out of foul trouble, that's another reason I think you're finally seeing more toughness and that's going to be really important when it comes tournament time.
[00:07:26] Speaker B: And I mean, let's not forget this was an Alabama team that was without for a third consecutive game. Latrell Reitzel who it's a crazy stat, but Alabama is undefeated when he scores double digits. And a lot of that's down to, as Nado said, the ball moves better with him on the floor than with him off of it. And that was certainly the case in stretches here against Tennessee. But just kind of missing his presence on that court could also have been huge. And maybe it's a seven point swing or maybe it's enough to win, but obviously you didn't have him.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: Another thing, just looking at the rest of the stat breakdown, you still had more turnovers than what you would have want. Alabama, where's the full turnover list? So twelve turnovers. Tennessee was able to get 17 points off that. But I know Nate Oates said in the game against Kentucky not having Latrell. Right. So he was like he wouldn't have made a difference in the game, but Kentucky had a lot of points off the turnovers. This one I think even more so like if you have Latrell Wrightsel in kind of keeping that turnover margin down, probably have a better chance to win. But one thing that I was impressed by, and this kind of goes to what I was talking, know, toughness and everything, Alabama had more points in the paint than Tennessee and that is something not a lot of people would have predicted going into it.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: No. And I mean, Alabama, it's essentially dead even. But you out rebounded Tennessee 44 to 42.
You got 25 points off your bench compared to 19.
And yeah, I think it's just one of those games where Nate Oates, and I'm sure the team is going to go back, they're going to watch the film and probably have more positives than, say, negatives in a lot of these areas because they were the more physical team and they played it and probably should have won them the game. But now you're sitting here and it's just, we lost it and you kind of got to regroup and I think it's going to be tricky to kind of preview ahead a little bit coming off of this loss and then having to go on the road and play Florida, who is at this point, Alabama is two, but both these teams are competing for seeding. Florida is ten and six in the SEC. Alabama is twelve and four. So Alabama still needs to win and kind of keep that up and try to get the highest seed because I believe as of right now, Tennessee would have to lose one of its remaining two and Alabama would have to win out for there to be a share of the SEC title.
[00:10:15] Speaker A: Yeah, they could still get the share.
I'm pretty sure if it was just the two team share, Alabama would still be that two seed. I'm not sure exactly how mean two wins over them. Tennessee's probably going to. I saw that there was still a way for there to be a five way tie. Don't think that's going to happen. I mean, Tennessee's got a couple of tough games, but Alabama going into Gainesville, that's going to be tough. But what I think I've seen the last several years, Alabama doesn't really lose the next game after a loss like that. They usually come out, they usually play pretty well, the team responds. And I guess the last time I would have saw back to back losses, probably two seasons ago.
[00:11:06] Speaker B: Well, in conference, yeah, technically, yeah.
[00:11:09] Speaker A: But like, when they were the year where they ended up losing, I think it was like four games, like right at the end going into the SEC tournament. So I expect Alabama to play really well. Gainesville is going to be tough, but I would still expect the team to kind of respond how they have the last two seasons.
[00:11:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I know we're talking SEC tournament. Florida is still a top 25 team. As of now, they're 24th. I don't know though how that's going to change come game time because Florida did just lose, but it's a potential quad one opponent and come the NCAA tournament, Alabama is going to need a lot of those.
You hope that this is more of a blip on the radar and just kind of chalk it up to the port shooting down the stretch and maybe the message is you win that game nine times out of ten against Tennessee. But I'm not as concerned with this loss as say like a week ago when Kentucky absolutely blitzed Alabama to death on offense and scored 117.
[00:12:25] Speaker A: Speaking of that. So we've talked about the responding in Florida. A bunch of people have kind of taken this Arkansas game, the last game of the regular season, kind of for granted with how poorly Arkansas has played this year. The record obviously is not very good and it's an 11:00 a.m.. Tip. Unfortunately for me, I will not be able to be there. I will be working. But we've seen multiple times how good the atmosphere at Coleman can be. We just saw it against Tennessee. Obviously it's an itip. It's going to be a little different within 11:00 a.m. You see it in football all the time, but I would highly recommend anybody that can be there make it to that game. Obviously last game of the regular season. I know a bunch of people can't make trips up to the SEC tournament, civil tournament. But Arkansas did just score over 100 points against Kentucky. So I'm not saying they're going to shoot like that against Alabama, but they have started to come alive offensively and you don't want to let down right before going into the SEC tournament.
[00:13:23] Speaker B: And we saw this a couple of years ago with Alabama, where they did have that letdown to end the season in 2021, and it essentially led to them just losing. I believe it was their last five, including the Vanderbilt in the SEC tournament, then Notre Dame in the first round in the NCAA tournament. And that was a team know going in that final stretch, they had beaten Gonzaga and Houston and had a couple. There was one other North Carolina.
No, who was it? They beat three.
It was three final four.
[00:14:01] Speaker A: Last year they had beaten Houston and North Carolina, and I believe they lost to Yukon, but they lost to Gonzaga in Birmingham last season. It was the year before that they had beaten a Gonzaga in Seattle and they had had a pretty good record going into SEC play. And then it was just like the wheels kind of fell off the years wrong there. But yeah, it was another team kind of like this one. Usually you had pretty good offensive players. They just weren't able to play as good defensively as they could have. And then you had some games where your best shooter is not making shots. I know there was a couple games, I think it was like against Kentucky, Shackleford had like the flu or something and he was missing everything. He was throwing up and Alabama ended up losing and a game they very should have won easily.
But yeah, hopefully we don't have that kind of letdown going in the last couple of games.
[00:15:08] Speaker B: And I do think that this team is more poised than that team was. So I don't really fear for that.
Yeah, it just, you got to think.
[00:15:21] Speaker A: I just remember they did beat Houston in Tuscaloosa that year. That was the one where they didn't call the goaltending on JD Davidson and all the Houston players were like breaking the chairs and stuff the way up.
[00:15:33] Speaker B: I was going to say, I remember that being a couple of years ago, but yeah. So Alabama is going to kind of the final thing here before you get to break. Alabama's got big matchup against Florida coming up, Arkansas to end the year a week from yesterday. So as long as you don't have any dire needs to attend to. 11:00 a.m. On Saturday, you got to be in Coleman end of the year. And if you go to the game 01:00 p.m. You can still leave for spring break at a decent hour. You can still come watch and then leave. The beach will be there. Alabama basketball might not. So that's what I'll say to that. So anyways, we'll head to our break here on the low tide and we'll be back and talking more Alabama sports and what was a pretty jampacked weekend of WVU AFM 90.7, a division of.
[00:16:40] Speaker A: Student media at the University of Alabama.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Support us by leaving a review rating.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Or following us on X at WVUA FM. Sports.
[00:17:00] Speaker B: Hello and welcome back to the low tide here on 90.7 WVUA, the Capstone radio. I'm Joe shots, joined by Adam Hambright. And we just got kind of done wrapping up the tough Alabama basketball loss to Tennessee yesterday and what was a very high energy game, to say the least. But we're going to switch into something a little more positive, and that is the Alabama women's basketball team, which just wrapped up their regular season earlier today with a 78 to 71 win over Texas A and M. They finished the year 23 and 810 and six in the SEC and will be a four seed in that women's basketball conference tournament and have a really good chance of making a nice little run in March for the women's tournament. So it was a pretty tight game kind of down the stretch. Alabama led for quite a lot of it early, and then Texas a M was able to kind of try to claw back, but in the end just was not really enough to overcome what was a really strong performance from Alabama as the usual suspects. Sarah Ashley Barker had 29 points, Leonai with 13, loyal McQueen with eleven, and just kind of a nice, complete performance to end the year.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely. And they've been playing really well all year. Obviously, you had the two times where they had LSU, they had the lead at halftime. Weren't able to pull that out. Probably the worst performance we saw from them was probably that South Carolina game. But South Carolina is undefeated. But I know a bunch of the students, they show up for those big games or they'll pay attention to the big games and they'll just see those losses. But this team has been, they've had an amazing year, finishing 23 and 810 and six in the SEC, getting that four seed double buy for the SEC tournament. I don't even remember the last time that the women have been able to do that. And today they were able to seal that game with essence Cody, who's been phenomenal player this year, she found out and they had to play several minutes without her in the game. Obviously, Sarah Ashley Barker had 29. And there was a time in this game where Texas A and M is making that comeback. And part of me also thinking about how the men had just let Tennessee come back, I'm like, oh, don't do this again. But they were at a ping on and they shot 43.5% from the field, 36.8% from a three point line, 38 points in the paint in some of these games, pretty dominant.
If you compare this team to what they were a couple of years ago, this is their world apart. And you got to thank Sarah Ashley Barker for transferring in. And then obviously, I think Aliyah Nye, she also transferred.
And I'm hoping with the results finally coming, they've been to the NCAA tournament a couple of years in a row now finally getting a top four seed for the SEC tournament. I'm hoping they just had that first five star recruit with that since last year and now it's like, can they start getting those more recruits? Can they get more transfers in to where they can finally start sealing those games against LSU? Or know, last year in the NCAA tournament, that game, know they had double digit lead most of the game and then all of a sudden they lost.
You know, I'm hoping this year they're able to make a little bit of run. Obviously it depends. I think they were projected as an eight seed for the NCAA tournament. Obviously it depends on matchups, who they're playing. But for the future of this program, I think this season is going to be kind of like what catapults them into the next level to where they're finally going to be able to get those players to come in.
[00:21:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think one of the big reasons for kind of why I'm optimistic about this team going into both SEC tournament and NCAA tournament is the fact that they're kind of peaking at the right time. Last year Alabama started or they were 26 at 1.9 and four and just beat Vanderbilt by 18 and then they lost four in a row to end the season, including a pretty bad loss to Kentucky in the SEC tournament and then lost to, like you said, Baylor after being up double digits. And that's just kind of how your season ended and you were at 1.26 and nine and four and looking as a potential double buy. And then this year it kind of seemed like Alabama actually was 27 to end the season, lost to South Carolina, and then that didn't kind of get the season away. They didn't let it go away. And they win their last three against Mississippi State, Florida, and then a and M today. And they have a really strong possibility looking up the bracket here for the SEC tournament. So the first round is kind of the lowest seeds to kind of the play in to the main.
So Alabama is going to in the quarterfinals because they skipped the first two rounds, is going to play either Tennessee or the winner of Georgia and Kentucky. So Georgia, Kentucky play in the first round. The winner of that game gets Tennessee. Winner of that game gets Alabama to play in that first round. Alabama beat Tennessee in their last meeting, 72 to 56 here in Tuscaloosa on February eigth. And then as far as Georgia and Kentucky, they beat Kentucky a little early in the season, in late January. And then Georgia, they kind of swamped in Athens, kind of one of their first SEC games. So it's a really good seed. Obviously, like we said, the first double buy in a long time and I'll have to look up the exact year, but I believe it's their first ten win. Yeah, here it is, their first ten SEC win season since 1990, 719 98. So like you said, adam, just the future of the program and what it's going to do for recruits, especially with your recruits playing well.
Essence Cody, she did foul out today and had seven points, but has been a really nice addition to that team. So when you get them playing good, more of them want to come.
[00:24:16] Speaker A: I wish I had the graphic that I had saw earlier, but it was Sarah Ashley Barker.
Whenever she, like in the games that Alabama's lost, she's averaged like eleven points in games that they've won, she's averaged.
I want to say it was like 15 or more. I can't remember the exact number, but obviously, like today was 29. I've seen some other games where she's been in those high twenty s. I think she's even had like a 30 point game or whatever. So I'm looking at the potential in this SEC tournament. And so you have South Carolina and LSU. So we know they had the one game against South Carolina where they did not play well. LSU two games. They had the lead on both of them. Ole Miss is the three seed. So if Alabama is able to get a game with Ole Miss, I believe that would have to be in the final.
I don't have the bracket in front.
[00:25:21] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm trying to pull up because.
[00:25:23] Speaker A: After that it would be Alabama would have to play most likely South Carolina, I believe in the semifinals because it would be a four against a one.
[00:25:31] Speaker B: Yes. Sorry, just to clarify, the only way they could play Ole Miss would be the championship.
[00:25:36] Speaker A: So if somehow, because Alabama's, if they win that first game, the only downside to having that double buy is those other teams are going to be more in a rhythm. But they could have also played two games in two days. So winning three games in three days is obviously going to be tough.
They come in Alabama, let's say they win that first one.
South Carolina is going to be tough if they somehow play like they did against the first half, against LSU both times pull off the upset. I was looking at the Ole Miss game because they've only played one time this year as well and Ole Miss beat them 55 45.
Alabama didn't score double digits in a quarter until the second half.
Sarah Ashley Barker scored 15. Jessica Timmon scored ten. But then those other people that usually step up, Aliyah Nye, she had zero points in that game. And it was just, I know if I'm them and somehow you made it to the SEC tournament championship and then you're playing miss. I think they would love that matchup again to kind of redeem themselves. Obviously coming off. If you beat South Carolina, that would be amazing as be and then you might have to let down after that game. But we can talk about that when it actually gets here. We'll see what happens. But I'm excited to keep watching this team play. There's been some years where you just kind of knew like, okay, they're going to go to the SEC tournament, they're probably going to lose first round. But now it's like, this is one of the best teams in the SEC. So I'm excited to watch them and then see how they can do because especially the out of know, they had actually had a couple know, tougher opponents in that out of conference schedule this year and they played really well against, you know, I'm ready for them to see what they can do in an NCAA tournament format.
[00:27:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this is Alabama earlier in the season, beat then number 20 Louisville, 78 to 73, battled tough against Syracuse on the road and picked up a couple of really nice wins.
I think just kind of playing those teams. They went and played Gonzaga this year, just playing those top tier or top higher tier opponents than what I think Alabama kind of had last year in their non conference. I think that kind of bodes well.
It's really exciting, to be honest, for the Alabama women's basketball team in the mean, this is one of the teams you got to watch, I think, because there's not going to be many opportunities in which, at least from what it's looking like, where you're going to say that Alabama might be able to hang with the South Carolina for a game if they meet up in that SEC tournament.
And even if it's not quite at that level yet, the season alone is just going to bring. And I still think, I mean, you're not going to play South Carolina in the first couple of rounds of the, you know, I think there's still potential for a really nice run, especially with the way know Sarah Ashley Barker is playing and how Ali and I shooting the real, just a real kind of positive note there after what essentially became a pretty downward talk of Alabama basketball and what kind of happened with Tennessee. But we'll go into here a little bit, Adam, let's just switch gears because we did just have a score go final in Frisco, Texas. Alabama baseball just lost to Dallas Baptist. Number 25, Dallas Baptist. I'll say seven to five game went twelve innings, and it was kind of a doozy of a game. Back and forth all the way.
[00:29:34] Speaker A: Yeah, this is Alabama's first loss in the season. Now they're eleven and one. I was telling you, Joe, during the break, since they had made the coaching change last year, Alabama had went 24 and six. That was after the win last night. So 24 and six since firing coach Bohannon last season. Two of those losses, SEC tournament, another two in the super regionals against wake fours. So only two losses regular season, and now three with the loss to Dallas Baptist. But Dallas Baptist is a really good team. Number 25, full weekend kind of update. They played Indiana on Friday night. They were able to run, rule them, beat them, twelve nothing, seven innings.
And you had really, like, everybody was just hitting on all cylinders. And it was a big change from what they had done earlier in that week. They had played UAB on Tuesday night up at regions. I was actually able to go up there. And Alabama got down four nothing against UAB. And then they were able to battle back. They ended up taking the lead. UAB tied it up and went extra. So extra innings against UAB, and that was like the toughest opponent they played. Then all of a sudden they're playing Indiana on Friday, and Indiana ranked in the top 25, and what does Alabama do? They put up five runs in the first inning, seven runs again, the fourth. That gave them their twelve, and they ended up winning that game. Twelve nothing, only gave up one hit.
And so Ben Hess, he was the one that had. He got the win in that one, so that put him at ten. And so far on the season, it was their fourth shutout of the season.
Ben Hess, in that game, struck out ten batters, and then all nine guys got hits. Teams been hitting multiple home runs a game.
So then they play again on Saturday. It's hard to keep up with this game because it was on d one baseball.com.
[00:31:49] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:31:49] Speaker A: So it's literally, I was just looking at the stat broadcast. I wish I could actually watch them, but you got to do what you got to do.
So they beat Arizona, and that game was.
Where's the final?
That game was a final of seven to six.
That was a game. They went down four nothing. They ended up battling back. So they were down four nothing, and all of a sudden it was like, two run home run. Cut it, four two. They kept battling back another game, kind of like that UAB game. But Arizona, the record doesn't really look all that good, but they've lost to some really good teams and most people that had watched this game and we're kind of watching the end of it. A bunch of us were sitting there waiting on the Alabama Tennessee basketball game and we were getting the updates. And Arizona had a chance to tie it up in that night then, and they tried to steal then, you know, guy was out by a were people were actually paying attention. So that's how that went. We felt good going in Dallas, but two and one this weekend against those three. So with Arizona and then two, top 25, Dallas Baptist being.
Yeah, so on one ranking hasn't been 23. Another has at 25. I don't know.
[00:33:17] Speaker B: This is, I believe at least the stat broadcast. One says number 25.
That's what I'm going.
[00:33:25] Speaker A: But it's your first loss of a year.
I've been saying, when we've talked about them before this, I've been saying we need to see them against better competition. We finally seen them. We haven't seen them against the SEc yet, but playing against very good teams. They had the lead a lot. Let's see. I'm trying to get the.
Alabama had a three to one lead in the second. They had had a five to two lead in the fourth, and then they couldn't score after that. And Dallas Baptist was able to come back.
They had home run in the fifth, home run in the 6th, home run in the twelveth, and that was.
[00:34:09] Speaker B: See.
[00:34:09] Speaker A: There should have been another one anyway.
One of those was a two run home run. But yeah, in these close games, the albums had. It's kind of been the long ball that's hurting me. UAB hit a couple and then obviously Dallas Baptist hit three to kind of two to tie up the game, one to take the lead, and then they added another run. But we finally seen them against top 25 teams. Pitching staff for the most part has looked solid, even with Riley quick being out for the year with his Tommy John surgery.
Offense looks really good. I'm excited to see them in SEC play. They have a couple more games. They have Jacksonville.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:54] Speaker A: So it's like Jacksonville State and Troy. Midweek they have a series against Lipscomb, and then spring break, they have a game in southern Miss. And then they finally start SEC play and it'll be against Tennessee. So this team.
[00:35:10] Speaker B: Welcome to SEC.
[00:35:11] Speaker A: Yeah, it's weird because it's like new coach.
They did keep coach Jackson. They kept him after his success last year. He's back to being pitching coach, but it's like new coach, bunch of new faces. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, this team might actually be really good. And it's something we, I mean, obviously we saw it last year, making it to the super regionals. We've seen other years where they've had decent teams, but you haven't really seen a team play this good in a long time.
[00:35:42] Speaker B: No, you haven't. And kind of what you were going along with a lot of the new faces, I mean, guys like TJ McCann's that are stepping up and delivering a lot of these long, you know, Justin LeBron as a freshman is coming in and been a really good bat and playing shortstop. You know, like we said, they got some games coming up against Jacksonville State, Troy, and then the weekend series against Lipscomb. And I will say this because we don't normally talk about baseball for a whole lot, but what's really impressed me was just kind of the attitude that this team has. I mean, obviously today wasn't a great result, but it seems like a lot of the games that Alabama has lost, for whatever reason it may have been, has been these kind of midweek games or games against teams that aren't your top circled opponents. And this season, Alabama's played really well. I mean, this was Alabama lost last year to UAB. They lost a game, I believe, to North Alabama. They were pretty bad in these midweek games. And this season, of course, I mean, it's twelve games and haven't even played a conference game, but just their ability to handle and kind of play well against middle Tennessee State, Alabama State, the teams that you're supposed to beat and the way that they have beaten them in the past and I think the loss today, it's baseball. Sometimes you can't win them all.
[00:37:06] Speaker A: You got 55 games regular season. You still got a chance to go 54 and one. Obviously, of course, joking around a little.
[00:37:12] Speaker B: Bit, but like 53 and twos.
[00:37:18] Speaker A: It'S exciting. And I've been most of the games so far.
You know, it's, you know, it's, there's like, I don't know, you, you just the feeling that we had last year when they were making that run and then obviously getting to host a regional. I think this team could very easily host a regional again. I know a bunch of, it's still early in the season, but a bunch of people have projected this baseball team to definitely make the tournament. But they've had them usually as like, so there's 16 one seeds, so they had them on one of those two seed lines and hopefully they keep playing like they have been. I think they could easily host again and if that's the case, hopefully people stick around in June because this team's good, they're exciting.
They've been several games. I think at one point they were averaging over ten runs a game. I don't know what exactly that number is now, but it's still going to be high up there and there's not going to be a lot of. Obviously, you got one more basketball home game. So once that's over, just get over to the Joe. It's basically right next door.
[00:38:32] Speaker B: Yeah, red field is fun, too.
[00:38:35] Speaker A: You get to yell at people and they actually hear you.
I'm sure they hear you. Some basketball, too. But the individual, it's a lot louder. Like for the whole game of basketball. When you go to baseball, if you've never been, go to right field, get in that first row, the right fielder's right there, and you obviously can't talk to everybody on the field, but you talk to him and sometimes you get some good reaction. I was at UAB, and it was weird because I don't know how many times UAB's right fielder has been heckled at his own field. Obviously not at their campus stadium is at regions where the Barons play. But there was like four or five Alabama fans out there in right field kind of heckling them. And then you saw it, when it got to extra innings, it finally got to him, and they were kind of yelling back and forth at each other. So it's fun, and it's a lot more fun at home when you have a lot more people to kind of back you up. We have had one dad threatened to fight some of the students at one.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: Point this year, but it's probably going to happen regardless of wherever you place that student section.
Alabama eleven and one and looking really good on the diamond. So we're going to segue here into a little break. When we come back, discuss more of Alabama athletics and see what else has been going on in Tuscaloosa and what's coming to the week ahead. This is the low tide on 90.7, the capstone W v UAFM. I'm Joe shots, joined by Adam Hambright and kind of winding down things on our end, discussing some Alabama sports, but still some stuff to get through, obviously. Alabama, you know, we already talked about the disappointing of men's basketball, the high kind of flights of women's basketball and baseball, and now we're going to get a little bit into softball. And, Adam, would you like to kind of break down the weekend?
[00:41:03] Speaker A: Yeah. So Alabama softball, obviously out to another good start to the season like they do most years, trying to get back to the women's college World Series again. We'll see what happens. They've been playing really well.
They did lose their first game of the weekend, just like baseball did. But softball has played a lot more games. So they're at 19 and one this weekend they had the Crimson Classic and they played. So they were supposed to play Wednesday against Jacksonville State in Jacksonville. That game got postponed for weather. Then they have the Crimson Classic. They start with Northern Iowa. They win that one, one nothing. Then they play Arizona. Beat them two to one. They played South Alabama. That was their first loss of the year, was against South Alabama. They lost two to nothing. And then they beat Arizona again, one nothing. Now Arizona was top 25 team number, 19 in one poll, 21 in the other one.
The thing that surprised me the most was the lack of offense this weekend. And part of that could be due to the weather. I'm not going to make too many excuses, but it was very off for them this season. They've had some issues in the past. Know, a bunch of people last year criticized their offensive performance. Most of the know, they felt like most of the reason that they were able to succeed was because of. And then, you know, we've talked about here how the pitching staff is still strong with Caleb Beaver, Ailey Johnson and the rest of the staff. And then this weekend kind of showed like, so they've had a strong off it. They had beat UAB last weekend, 15 nothing. And it's like, okay, they just done a whole weekend where they had scored ten in one game, eight in another, 115. It's like, okay, they're on track. And then this weekend at home didn't really have the same offensive firepower that you would have thought. So against Northern Iowa, they ended up so Caleb Beaver through her fourth complete game, 117 pitches, 75 of them were strikes. And in the bottom of the first base is loaded, ground out to the right side, plated the only run of the game. And then they needed that pitching staff the rest of the game. Obviously that game, it was just Caleb Beaver, but they were able to hold him off. Then they played Arizona. This was a game that I was able to go to after working with adapted and they hit a two run home run in the first inning, didn't score the rest of the game.
In that game they had had.
So there's the two run home run from Abby Ducher in the first and then the second. That was when Arizona hit a solar home run of themselves. And then Alvin was able to hold on to win that game.
I'm trying to see what the actual pitching stats were from that game.
[00:44:23] Speaker B: Yeah, stats are tough to come.
[00:44:26] Speaker A: They're having a little trouble with the connection over here, but yeah. So in that game, Kayla Beaver pitched again. She pitched six innings, four hits. Obviously the one run, only had one walk.
Ailey Johnson came in and she sealed the game with her 17 pitches, two strikeouts in her one inning of work, picking up the save. Then you had the loss to South Alabama, the first game they have not scored in all season.
And with that one, you had South Alabama scored in the second and the third, both of them doubles that scored, runners that were on. And then Jayla Torrance, she pitched four innings, only gave up two hits, but did give up the two runs. She had four strikeouts. And then Ailey Johnson once again came back into the game, pitched three innings, scoreless work to keep Alabama in the game. Just weren't able to get the offensive production. And then you had the final game, once again against Arizona, where they were able to win that one. One nothing. And guess what? They didn't just score in the first inning this time. They waited a little bit until the fourth, where Marley Giles homered to right field. And in that game, once again, Jayla Torrance got a start in that one. She went five innings, gave up three hits, had three strikeouts. Ailey Johnson came in for an inning and a third, had one strikeout, no hits. And then Caleb Beaver came up, came in to pick up the save. Her first save.
Excuse me, third save of the year, first save of the weekend, pitched two thirds of an inning, no hits.
So pitching staff very strong once again. It's not all just one person, obviously, Kayla Beaver, she's the one that's getting all the talk. But Ailey Johnson coming in relief. Jayla Torrance has been having some pretty good outings. And if the bats can get hot again, I mean, teams already 19 and one, if the bats can get hot again, this is going to be a really good team. When it comes to SEC play, which is starting pretty soon.
[00:46:51] Speaker B: Yeah, SEC play starts Saturday, Sunday and Monday against Florida.
But yeah, going back to kind of your point here about if the bats can get going and how good the pitchings have been, it was interesting to see this weekend just kind of over, I guess, a little longer of a weekend, but just kind of the bats, like you said, fall quiet. I mean, this was a team that essentially, like you said, beat UAB 15 to nothing going in, had multiple double digit wins, multiple run rules, coming in and just kind of couldn't seem to find it. And it might have been maybe South Alabama, Arizona and northern Illinois are the three best teams that they've played, at least recently. So that could have been it.
But you're also wondering that if it's happening right now and you're about to enter SEC play, is it going to be figured out or is it going to become your kind of season long problem in that aspect? But you talked about it a little bit. The pitching staff, if they can just keep doing what they're doing, it's hard to score a run against Alabama to beat them by, I mean, multiple one to nothing wins over this weekend, beat Arizona two to one. So it seems like at least right now, the way that the pitching staff is, Alabama scores two, they're going to win.
And that's kind of what it's been, and that's true for all but one game in which they led up to, to South Alabama. So just, it's a bad problem to have, but not an unfixable problem. There's still a long way to go and like we saw today in the college softball world, anything can happen.
[00:48:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
To tell you all what Joe's alluding to, Oklahoma loses for the first time. They had a first time this season, but they had a 71 game winning streak. They had lost a game early in the season last year and then had, I can't remember the exact when they won the championship. It was like 50 something straight games. And now they had 71. Louisiana Raging Cajuns went in, beat them seven to five. And who knows, Oklahoma might go on another 71 game winning street. They still look like they might be the best team in the nation.
It'll be interesting to see what will happen if they match up because this is the last year before Oklahoma's in the SEC. And Oklahoma and Texas, really good softball teams, both coming to the SEC. Alabama has been one of the best programs in softball history. Really. They only missed one super regional. Since the super regional was implemented, they only have the one national championship, but they've been to Oklahoma City a bunch and now you're adding two more high profile teams. It's going to be interesting to see when they have to play, if not every year, every couple of years they'll be forced to play in SEC play.
But maybe Alabama gets the bats hot again this year and then maybe has to face Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.
[00:50:14] Speaker B: It'll be fun and to be fair, yeah, it's not quite Oklahoma, but in about two weeks, essentially you're going to play Georgia for three games in Athens, and they're, I believe, third in the.
Yeah, like, you're not gonna get Oklahoma, but you're gonna have to get Georgia. And this is after you play Florida for a weekend and then Florida State midweek in Tallahassee, you're then going to have to go to Athens to play Georgia. So still a really solid stretch of softball and opponents coming up for Alabama, even if it's not quite the 71 in a row sooners. But yeah, if you can turn it around. I think, like you said, this team can be really dangerous if they can consistently put up multiple runs a game and the pitching staff with what it's doing, you're not going to lose many games.
I think you got to think about it more as a, can you ride out this kind of just storm a little bit in the hitting and get it back on track? Or like I said, is it going to be kind of what your season is?
[00:51:21] Speaker A: And then I'll just give one quick thing before we head out. Almost running out of time. So Alabama adapted athletics women's wheelchair national championship will be this upcoming weekend, Friday and Saturday, working on getting the actual schedule brought up.
Women's team. They have not lost to a collegiate team all season long. They had lost first game of the season to the ABC medical Legends. They lost that one by 20 points.
That's a non collegiate team. Also has some of the coaching staff on that team. So it didn't count towards their actual collegiate seating or anything, but kind of a game where play a little bit better competition than most. And then they had won 24 straight games, like I said, not losing a single collegiate team. They have had a couple of closer games against like UT Arlington. They had one game where they won by four, but then they had won 24 straight games until they played the legends again. And then they had lost 52 to 49, a lot closer. I know the legends had some players that weren't playing, but had a chance. Almost won 25 in a row going into nationals. Now you will have the national championships and.
Sorry about that. I just got a message, but I will be working the national championships all weekend. I will actually get to be a play by play broadcaster for the first time.
I've done a couple of games with color commentating and then I've done some of the PA announcements.
But this weekend, for the first game, 10:00 a.m., Friday, I will be on play by play for Cooney and Illinois.
Then a couple of games, I will be PA again before I finish up just doing producing for the actual championships. The first game that Alabama will play, if you're interested in coming out to Strand Harden arena because the championships are in Tuscaloosa, will be 06:00 p.m.. Friday.
Obviously, there's some other things, softball is going on, but if you want to come out and support a team that's trying to win a national championship, I believe it'll be 6th in a row. I mean, 2020 was, that season didn't end, but it's either five or six bunch of national championships in a row. That's all you need to know. And 06:00 p.m. They will play the winner of Wisconsin, Whitewater and Arizona. And then if they win that one, they'll be in the national championship, which will be Saturday at 02:00 p.m.
And they haven't lost to either one of those teams this year. Like I said, hadn't lost a collegiate game, so we're expecting them to be in the championship. Obviously got the number one overall seed, so it's going to be a lot of fun this weekend.
[00:54:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I do want to give a quick shout out. Something kind of crazy I saw from a Alabama alum of sorts, I guess.
I believe it was two days ago, Nick Dunlap in the PGA national, hit a hole in one at hole seven, recently turned pro, obviously won as an amateur, won a PGA Tour championship for the first time in 33 years. About a month and a half ago, a little over a month ago, I should say, and hasn't really had. Obviously he's not going to win every tournament, hasn't had maybe the success that he would have thought immediately turning pro. But Holden won the other day. It was a really cool shot and just a very cool thing to see from a guy who has obviously been kind of the talk of the town golf wise.
[00:55:40] Speaker A: Just when you thought you heard everything you were going to hear about him this year, he gets a hole in one.
[00:55:44] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah. Once you kind of thought it might have been over, just, oh, he'll win one and kind of go away. He decides to hit a beautiful golf shot into the whole first try.
That'll kind of wind us out of here. It's been a pleasure, obviously. Join us next, maybe, hopefully next Sunday.
[00:56:05] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll talk to Nick, who unfortunately was not here today. Maybe he'll be feeling better.
[00:56:09] Speaker B: I was going to say. I was going to say you'll see us next week with a full cast, but I'm sure it's something will get done in between then thank you for joining us tonight here in the low tide. Adam Hambright. I'm Joe Schottz, and we thank you guys for listening.
