ABOUT ALABAMA
• Alabama has had mixed bag of results to begin its 2020-21 campaign, with a 6-3 overall record and a 1-0 mark in conference play after taking down Ole Miss, 82-64, Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa.
• Second-year head coach Nate Oats aims to build off the immediate improvement the Tide saw in 2019-20, as he returns four of his five regular starters from last year's squad that finished ninth in the SEC.
• On the offensive end, the Crimson Tide have put together a largely balanced attack, with four of those five returning starters, averaging at least 12 points per game.
• The first of those is sophomore Jaden Shackelford, who has seen an increased role entering his second year in Tuscaloosa. The Hesperia, California, native is averaging a team-leading 13.4 points and was named the SEC Player of the Week on Monday after pouring in 26 points in the Tide's victory over ETSU on Dec. 22.
• Classmate Jahvon Quinerly joins Shackelford in the backcourt, ranking second on the team in scoring (13.1 ppg) and first in assists (3.2 apg). Quinerly has also been incredibly efficient from the field, tallying a team-best field-goal percentage of .500 (42-84).
• In the frontcourt, it's been all about senior Herbert Jones. Jones ranks third on the team in scoring, with 12.1 points per game, and has been a beast on the boards, reeling in a team-high 6.3 rebounds per night. On the defensive end, he's recorded just under one block per game (0.9 bpg) and a team-leading 1.6 steals per game.
• Notable alumni of Alabama include author Harper Lee, best known for her 1960 novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and has become a classic of modern American Literature.
