Tide holds off Oregon State, awaits Villanova

The Alabama basketball team held on to beat Oregon State in the 2K Sports Classic semifinal in New York's Madison Square Garden. The Tide will advance to take on Villanova in the final tonight.

UPDATE: We'll use this as our open thread. TV coverage via ESPN2, radio coverage on the Crimson Tide Radio Network, and GameTracker available here.

The Crimson Tide basketball team managed to hold on to beat Oregon State on Thursday night in New York's Madison Square Garden despite surrendering a 15-point lead in the latter stages of the second half. After a severe Alabama scoring drought and some key missed free throws allowed Oregon State to tie the game with less than a minute to go, Trevor Lacey, who had another outstanding game and once again led the team in scoring, found an open Rodney Cooper in the corner who subsequently nailed the game-winning three-pointer with only seconds remaining on the clock.

The win over Oregon State underscored some concerns about this team, namely interior scoring and defensive rebounding, but at the end of the day Bama was still able to stake claim to a neutral court win over a major conference team that is expected to win a lot of games in the Pac 12 this season. Oregon State isn't a great team, but picking up wins like this early in the season will go a long way come Selection Sunday in March.

With the win in last night's 2K Sports Classic semifinal, the Tide will now advance to take on the Villanova Wildcats of the Big East conference in tonight's final. That game is scheduled to tip off at 6:30 CT and will be televised nationally on ESPN2.

Like Alabama, Villanova will enter tonight's final with a perfect 3-0 record. The Wildcats took down Division II District of Columbia as well as Marshall at home last weekend, and then pulled out a dramatic, comeback win in overtime over Purdue in last night's second semifinal at the Garden.

Villanova, which appeared in the Final Four as recently as 2009, has slipped a bit as a program in the last few years, and bottomed out when they finished near the bottom of the Big East last season. However they entered this season expected to be much improved, and were projected to finish near the middle of the pack in the Big East.

The Wildcats are lead this season by a freshman, 6'3" guard Ryan Arcidiacono, who leads the team in minutes played, scoring, assists, and three-point shooting--in other words just about everything from the perimeter. A trio of 6'6" wing players are the next three leading scorers: junior James Bell, sophomore Darrun Hilliard, and sophomore JayVaughn Pinkston.

Seniors Maurice Sutton and Mouphtaou Yarou and freshman Daniel Ochefu split time in the paint, each standing at least 6'11". While the Wildcats have size, they lack a dominant inside presence, which is good thing matchup-wise for the Tide.

Much like Oregon State, Villanova will present Alabama with a major-conference opponent who will test the Tide physically. However, like Oregon State, Villanova is far from a world-beater this year, and this is a very winnable game for Bama. Vegas has the Tide a 3.5-point favorite.

Neither a win nor a loss would be likely be a game-changer on the Tide's postseason resume, but a win would put Alabama in the enviable position of having three quality wins already on the resume by middle November, something that would put the team in fantastic position moving forward this season. A third win on national television and an early-season tournament title in Madison Square Garden would also not be bad for the team's confidence and the program's stature as the 2012-2013 season gets underway. Hope for the best.

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Tide heads to Big Apple to take on Oregon State

The Crimson Tide basketball team will resume its nonconference slate with a neutral court matchup against Oregon State tonight in the 2K Sports Classic.

The Crimson Tide basketball team will resume early-season play with a pair of nationally televised games against major conference opposition over the next two nights in New York City's Madison Square Garden. First up will be tonight's clash against the Oregon State Beavers of the Pac 12 conference. The game is scheduled to tip off at 6:00pm CT and will be televised on ESPN2.

Both teams will enter tonight with 2-0 records, each having downed a pair of mid-major foes at home last weekend. Alabama of course needed a big comeback and dramatic finish to knock off a good South Dakota State team before dismantling Division II opponent West Alabama. Oregon State meanwhile prevailed in a high-scoring shootout with Niagara in their opener, winning by 19 points, and then followed up with a nine-point victory over New Mexico State in their last game.

The Beavers have struggled as a program for some time now, but finally showed some signs of life last season when they finished in the middle of the pack in an admittedly very "down" Pac 12 conference. However, after returning four starters from their respectable squad from last year, they probably have more hope entering this season than they have in quite some time. They should at worst be a middle-of-the-pack team in the Pac 12 once again this season, and could make a run at an NCAA berth if things break their way.

In short, the Beavers are no world-beaters, but they should provide the Tide legitimate, major-conference-level opposition tonight in the Garden. Vegas has the game as a near toss-up, with the Tide favored by merely 2.5 points.

The big name to watch on Oregon State is junior point guard Ahmad Starks, who has exploded out of the gates in his first two games this year, scoring a combined 51 points in his two appearances thus far. He's also claimed twelve rebounds, six assists, and four steals in those two contests. Starks is a big-time player. He'll be on the court nearly the whole game, and he'll be able to hurt Bama's defense in a variety of ways. He's only 5'9", but Starks has proven he can be deadly, so containing him is clearly the biggest challenge facing the Bama defense.

Starters for Oregon State in the post are 6'10" senior Angus Brandt and 6'10" sophomore Eric Moreland. Moreland is the stronger rebounder, but Brandt is a more dangerous scoring threat. Neither is an all-star but both are experienced and Brandt will challenge Bama's questionable frontcourt with his scoring prowess, while Moreland could exploit Bama's potential weakness on the glass. 6'8" junior Devon Collier will provide depth on the inside for Oregon State. This will be the best test yet for the Tide's pair of 7-foot centers, as well as the banged-up Nick Jacobs.

On the perimeter, 6'3" junior guard Roberto Nelson and 6'7" wing player Joe Burton round out the Oregon State starting lineup. Nelson is the team's second-leading scorer and like Starks, is a threat from the arc. Burton is more of a versatile player, but is less dangerous from the arc. 6'3" sophomore guard Challe Barton and 6'7" freshman wing player Jarmal Reid provide depth on the perimeter.

Overall, Oregon State may not be an elite-level team, and may have struggled in past seasons, but they have the look of a very solid major-conference team this year that could force their way into the NCAA Tournament conversation, especially if they manage to win a few games like the one tonight. This will be Bama's second significant test in its first three games, and anything less than a good performance tonight will likely spell defeat. While an early-season game like this is far from do-or-die, this is one of only about a half-dozen key nonconference games the Tide will face this season, and so the result will have a fairly significant impact on the Tide's nonconference resume come postseason time. Hope for the best.

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2K Sports Classic | Alabama vs Oregon State Open Thread

2K Sports Classic | Alabama vs Oregon State Open Thread - Roll 'Bama Roll @media all and (min-width: 599px) {.sbn-pl-sbn-dfl-comments-wrapper { min-height: 610px;}}.flipme .sbn-river-standard-chunk {direction: rtl;}.flipme .sbn-river-standard-chunk div {direction: ltr;}.flipme .sbn-river-standard-chunk div.sbn-river-standard-chunk-stack-col {border-left: 0;border-right: solid 25px #fff;}.flipme .sbn-river-standard-chunk.chunk-left {direction: ltr;} window.ooyala_player_id = "e7e908eebffd4efeb96a3096aa9b4bd0"; _umbel.push(['tag', 'profile.tags', 'sport:ncaa-football']);_umbel.push(['tag', 'profile.tags', 'team:Alabama Crimson Tide']);   Login Sign Up Roll 'Bama Roll, an Alabama Crimson Tide community Menu Items NFL NBA MLB NHL CFB CBB UFC Soccer NASCAR Fantasy Golf Tennis Video Local Cycling Boxing Horse Racing Running Water Polo Wrestling SB Nation View All 320 Blogs Basketball 2K Sports Classic | Alabama vs Oregon State Open Thread 142 By Todd on Nov 15, 5:49p

Kelly Lambert-US PRESSWIRE

The Crimson Tide travel to New York's Madison Square Garden to take on the Beavers of Oregon State in the 1st round of the 2012 2K Sports Classic

Alabama vs. Oregon State * 6 p.m. CST * TV: ESPN2 * Radio: Crimson Tide Sports Network * GameTracker

                                                                                                                                                                                                               

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