Alabama vs San Diego State: 2023 NCAA Tournament game preview, prediction
Alabama
Alabama will enter this affair as winners of five straight, with their last loss coming on the road to Texas A&M.
Led by freshman phenom, Brandon Miller, the Crimson Tide are coming off a dominant win against #8 seed Maryland, where they won 73-51.
They are beginning to look like the dominant team that opened the season 18-2.
That said, the Crimson tide are on a roll with five straight wins by at least 10 points.
While Miller has been their go to player down the stretch, Jahvon Quinerly, the SEC’s Co-Sixth Man of the Year, has played quite well, averaging 17.5 PPG in the two NCAAM tournament games thus far.
Perhaps the scariest component of this Alabama team is that they can get you from all over.
The Crimson Tide possess incredible depth, and even with Brandon Miller battling a groin injury, guys like junior forward Nick Pringle (19 Points vs Texas A&M-CC) have stepped up.
Alabama has the ability to score at will, and, their starting five and bench could both get you at any time.
SDSU
The San Diego State Aztecs are winners of six straight and their defense has been clicking as of recently.
While the Aztecs surrendered 63.4 PPG leading up to the tournament, they’ve given up only 109 in their two tournament games, in other words, 54.5 PPG.
Led by a group of guards, senior guard Matt Bradley and junior guard Micah Parrish are the names to know.
Bradley’s been the team’s leading scorer with 13 PPG.
Parrish, on the other hand, is coming off a solid game against Furman, where he had 16 points on 6 of 12 shooting.
Like the Crimson Tide, the Aztecs are a deep team.
They definitely aren’t the Alabama powerhouse offense that put up 82.6 PPG, 5th in all of college basketball, but they can sneak up on you, and keep things close with their strong defense.
Prediction
This should be a really great game in the Sweet 16 of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Alabama struggles in the first half, just like they have recently.
However, I think they will recoup in the 2nd half and pull away, sealing a birth to the Elite 8.
They have all the momentum in the world right now, and it’s hard to go against them at the moment.
It should be a tight one, but the Tide will pull away in their latter stages of the second half, winning this one by 13.
Prediction: Alabama 81, SDSU 68