TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - No. 20 Alabama basketball cruised past Sam Houston 96-74 on Tuesday night to start the 2026-27 season 1-0.
Let's get into both the good and bad from the Crimson Tide's victory in the first-every basketball edition of Tide Up, Tide Down, BamaCentral's reactionary postgame series that evaluates some of the best and worst players, moments, and trends from Alabama's season.
Jemison was the first Alabama player to re-sign with the team this offseason, as his role should increase exponentially. Philon called Jemison and Allen "Alpha Dogs," as the sophomores are expected to lead this new-look roster. Jemison was solid in the preseason, but nothing more. He combined for five rebounds in the latter two contests, as he'll be a key piece in fixing this team's collective issue.
He had a few instances last season where he shot in bunches, leading to more buckets. He's a difference maker once he gets hot, and building on that confidence will not only benefit himself, but the whole team as well, and this was the case on Tuesday against Sam Houston.
Jemison tied fellow forward Drew Fielder for the team lead in points with 15 on 6 of 7 from the field, including 3 of 4 from deep. He also contributed three rebounds and two steals during his 20 minutes on the floor, and made big plays on both sides of the ball. Jemison would often be utilized as a corner specialist last season, but he had the ball in his hands at various other spots.
"He set the tone a little bit that we're going to rebound harder," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said during the postgame press conference. "He's put some time in the gym. He ends up going 6 of 7 from the floor, he had his foot on the three-point line, otherwise he would have gone 4 of 5 from three. He's worked hard. Gives you length. Gave us shooting."
Oats' top priority was to get his team bigger after another lackluster season on the glass. He accomplished this, as 12 of the 15 players on the roster are at least 6-foot-6, but after the three preseason exhibitions, Oats' biggest takeaway was that the "rebounding is still not fixed."
Alabama had the opportunity to turn that narrative in the right direction, but Sam Houston tallied 45 rebounds while the Tide grabbed 42. The Bearkats also won on the offensive glass 15-13, and had a 14-12 edge in second-chance points.
"That's the one area where I thought we still needed to be better," Oats said. "Their starting four-man had eight rebounds, three offensive, they do a great job keeping them off. [Drew] Fielder had six rebounds. Brandon [Garrison] had four. Probably needs to be a little bit better. Tarris [Bouie] got in there, helped them out and had seven. But we got beat by three on the glass.
"Now, eight of their 45 rebounds were team rebounds. Some of the fouls they call against us were tough calls and they end up with eight O-boards on some of those. But we've got to do a better job. We gave up an O-board at the free-throw line, which you can't do that.
"Our physicality was better, but I still don't think we were good enough on the class. I do think Brandon's physicality and defense in general was great, but as a whole, we had to do a better job on the glass."
During the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons - the early years of the Nate Oats era - the Crimson Tide forced 21 turnovers in a single game. Alabama forced Sam Houston to turn the ball over 23 times. This broke the most recent team high of 22 against Georgia Tech during the 2011-12 season.
Qayden Samuels led UA with four steals, while Brandon Garrison had three, Amari Allen, London Jemison and Keitenn Bristow, plus Tarris Bouie each snatched two and Jaxon Richardson and Anderson Diaz each added one to the stat sheet. Four of these players are freshmen, including the leading Samuels.
But Alabama snatched an impressive 10 blocks on Tuesday, including four from Keitenn Bristow. The junior only played in 10 games in 2025-26, as he was dealing with a multitude of setbacks, including a leg injury after the Texas loss on Jan. 10 that proved to be long-term. But he's fully healthy now and is off to a great start.
"It's a really good game," Oats said. "He's had some big-time blocks in the exhibition games too, so it's great when you get some rim protection from somewhere other than your five spot. We didn't play him at the five at all...Offensively, he's super smart, doesn't take bad shots, he's efficient. When you look at what he is able to do, I think he's a big piece of what we're trying to do this year."
Cloer scored nine points within his first 12 minutes of action during the preseason exhibition against Furman and finished the night with 14 points on 4 of 10 from downtown. He also led Alabama with 18 points on 4 of 8 from deep in the Ole Miss scrimmage.
He sat out for Auburn due to a lower body injury and but did face Sam Houston. However, the lack of practice hurt him on the stat sheet, logging just two points on 1 of 9 from the field (0 of 6 from deep) with three bounds and no assists in 15 minutes. Each time he was subbed off, Oats had a word with him on the bench. It seems like he'll have the green light to fire away from behind the arc all year long, but this wasn't the best start for him.
"It's hard to play well when you don't practice," Oats said. "His calf injury held him out of practice. He's just got to get into practice, get some practice reps. Got to keep shooting good shots. I didn't think he had bad shots tonight. I think he just missed him. And then my message to him at halftime was like, 'You've got to like lose yourself in the game a little bit.' He's the only guy on the team that played that had zero blue-collar points [at halftime].
"So like, how do you impact winning when your shots are not dropping? Well, you got to go do some other stuff. So I didn't think he did enough to like get himself in the flow of the game, look into the O-boards, putback, turn somebody over, get a bucket out in transition, get yourself going a little bit that way. He ended up with like five-and-a-half blue-collar points, which, if he'd done that both halves, he ends up in double digits, which is a solid night.
"He's got to lose himself in the effort plays, and then I think that the scoring stuff will just take care of itself because he's an elite shooter that just was rusty. He didn't practice much in the last three weeks."
Bad starts in the second half were one of Alabama's main forms of kryptonite last season. It played a role in numerous losses, including the final one to eventual national champion Michigan in the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16.
Alabama's start to the second half during the Ole Miss scrimmage was crucial to the final result. Coming out of the locker room strong is something to keep an eye on for the Crimson Tide as the season unfolds.
On BamaCentral's Game Central story, which was posted three hours before the season-opening tipoff, one of our keys to the game was to start the second half on the right note. Alabama did just that against Sam Houston.
The Crimson Tide led 40-29 at the break, but then it became 49-31 less than three minutes later. With 11 minutes remaining in regulation, Alabama held a very comfortable 71-45 lead and never looked back.
After going 5 of 15 (33.3 percent) from behind the arc in the first half, Sam Houston went 10-for-18 (55.6) in the second period.
Guarding the three-point line was an issue for Alabama against Furman, which made 18 in October, and the Crimson Tide got exposed again on Tuesday night. As previously stated, Alabama made a ton of defensive plays, but this is something that'll need to be fixed quickly.
"I think we have a lot of guys who can make shots," Sam Houston head coach Chris Mudge said. "I think when we share the ball and get paint touch assisted threes, I think it's one of our superpowers. I think that at times in the first half we were shooting it a little bit early instead of running our offense.
"But I do think in the second half you saw some possessions where we really shared the ball well. And when we do, and when we get open looks, we've got usually 3-4 guys on the court who can really shoot."
Sign up to our free newsletter and follow us on Twitter /X, Facebook , YouTube , Instagram , TikTok for the latest news
This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/alabama as Tide Up, Tide Down from Alabama's Season-Opening Victory Over Sam Houston .
