Nate Oats sets expectations for Labaron Philon vs. Arkansas
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Nate Oats’ Alabama team is ranked again at No. 25 and has reeled off 4 straight wins since that ugly loss at Florida to begin the month of February.
In other words, the Crimson Tide are rolling going into another SEC showdown on Wednesday night against No. 20 Arkansas. The battle of ranked teams is in Tuscaloosa, with the Tide and Hogs tipping things off at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN.
The primetime midweek showcase is a chance for Bama to get to 9-4 in the SEC and stay within earshot of first-place Florida in the league standings. But Arkansas has its own agenda, with the Razorbacks sitting just 1 game behind the Gators at 9-3 as they head into Coleman Coliseum. It’ll be a matchup of high-level SEC teams and also high-level league stars in Alabama’s Labaron Philon and Arkansas’s Darius Acuff Jr.
Philon is a sophomore and Acuff is a freshman, and both of them make their teams go. Both lead their teams in scoring, with Philon at 21.3 points per game and Acuff right behind at 21.2. Both lead their teams in assists, with Acuff at 6.3 and Philon at 4.9. Philon also leads the Tide in steals with 1.2 per contest, so this is definitely the matchup within the matchup, but Oats just wants his star player to focus on the big-picture task at hand.
“(Philon) doesn’t need to outscore Acuff. If that happens, that happens. He needs to lead his team to a win,” Oats told reporters on the eve of the huge SEC showdown.
A lot of eyes will no doubt be on Philon and Acuff on Wednesday night, but Oats just wants the scoreboard to say that Alabama won its 5th in a row when the final buzzer sounds.
And he knows Philon can help make that happen if he focuses on a lot more than just individual scoring.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
