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College Football

Alabama basketball: Why Jaden Shackelford is the key to the Crimson Tide’s success at SEC Tournament

Adam Spencer

By Adam Spencer

Published:

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The Alabama Crimson Tide won the SEC’s regular-season men’s basketball title. But now they’re in Nashville, where SEC Player of the Year (and Defensive Player of the Year) Herb Jones and Coach of the Year Nate Oats will try to cut down the nets at the SEC Tournament.

The Tide tip off in the quarterfinals at noon Eastern time today, taking on the No. 9 seed Mississippi State Bulldogs. The Bulldogs outlasted No. 8 seed Kentucky on Thursday afternoon.

Obviously, just beating Mississippi State to advance to Saturday’s semifinals isn’t going to be enough for this team. Jones, Oats, John Petty Jr., Jaden Shackelford and the rest of the Tide won’t be content with a deep run. They want a trophy.

So, how can they win both the regular season and tournament titles this year? Over the next 3 days, Shackelford is going to be the key.

Why is Shackelford the key? There are a couple of reasons:

Herb Jones isn’t 100% healthy

Before injuring his back on a hard fall against Mississippi State on Jan. 23, Jones had scored at least 10 points in 6 of his 8 SEC games. Since then, he’s only reached the 10-point mark in 4 of 11 games.

He’s still making an impact on both ends of the floor. He’s an elite defender and he’s stepped into a point-forward role at times offensively, making the right decision with the ball more often than not.

The biggest problem? Jones isn’t able to get to the rim and finish in traffic the way he was earlier in the year. That has hurt the Alabama offense at times. Outside of a 21-point outburst from Jones against Georgia on Feb. 13, he hasn’t been his usual self.

It should come as no surprise that, since Jones’ injury, Alabama’s once-dynamic offense has only scored 80 or more points in 4 of 11 games, including twice against Georgia, a team not exactly known for its defense.

So, why does this make Shackelford the key player for the Tide in Nashville? Well …

Shackelford can do it all offensively

I wrote earlier in the year that Alabama’s offense reminded me of the Houston Rockets’ offense when James Harden was running the show. When Harden had the ball in his hands, which was very often, he would either shoot a 3 or drive into the lane. In the lane, he had some options — dish it out to an open 3-point shooter, get fouled, or make a layup in traffic.

The person most able to do that on Alabama’s roster, other than Jones, is Shackelford. Here he is splitting a pair of defenders, driving the lane and dishing it out to Jones for 3:

Here he is attacking a defender on the closeout, getting into the lane and making a tough bucket:

And here he is hitting a couple of 3-pointers in the flow of the Alabama offense:

Both of those 3s were from NBA range. And, finally, here’s Shackelford taking over a game when Alabama needed him to in a surprisingly tight win over Vanderbilt:

Shackelford finished with 27 points in that game despite going 1-for-9 from 3-point range.

If he can get into the lane like he was against Vandy and also make more than 11% of his 3-pointers, Alabama doesn’t need Jones to do too much during the SEC Tournament.

Shackelford had 12 points in the Tide’s first win over Mississippi State. He had 15 in the second, SEC regular-season-title-clinching win over the Bulldogs.

I think he’s capable of doing even more. And, if Shackelford can get in the lane early and often on Friday and moving forward, it’ll open up 3-point opportunities for guys like John Petty Jr., Jahvon Quinerly and Josh Primo.

To win the SEC Tournament title, Alabama is going to have to play games on 3-straight days. Guys’ legs are going to be tired. They’re going to be sore and bruised.

But, if the Tide can get to the free-throw line, they should be fine. And, boy, do we ever know that SEC officials love to call fouls. Shackelford, at 6-3 and 200 pounds, is strong enough to continue to get in the lane.

He’ll be the game-changer for the Tide, and if he can have a big weekend, Alabama will be cutting down the nets and waiting to see if it earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.

Adam Spencer

Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.

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