Automated Voice: Collect Call from….Alabama Basketball. Do you accept?
Back before cell phones, a person could call “collect” and ask the recipient of the call to pay for it. It was an amazing thing.
Today, calling collect has largely been phased out, but if there is a college basketball program that has been making you pay from long distance over the last few years, it’s Alabama.
Head coach Nate Oats has revolutionized the Crimson Tide basketball program since his arrival in 2019, and the primary means for that transformation has been Alabama’s ability to score and shoot the three-pointer effectively. Alabama can hit you with a barrage of 3’s that will leave you on the losing end of a contest—and your head spinning in the process.
Is it fair to say that the program has become 3-Point U?
Last Sunday, the Crimson Tide reached a new season high for three pointers made in a game with 19 against South Dakota State. Guard Mark Sears hit eight three-pointers and Aden Holloway netted eight more bombs from behind the arc. Of the Crimson Tide’s 78 total shots, 70.5 percent of them were from long distance.
On the 2024-25 season, Alabama has shot the ball 914 times, with 433 attempts by way of the three-pointer—roughly half of Alabama’s total attempts. Nationally, Alabama ranks fifth in 3-point attempts per game (32.6) and 25th in average 3-pointers made per game (10.3).
There is an opportunity cost to every offensive approach, but there is also an indirect fallout to the Oatsian high octane scheme: stretching the floor and playing a fast-paced brand of basketball has also contributed to Alabama getting to the free throw line more often. The Crimson Tide currently ranks seventh in the country in free-throw attempts per game with a 26.9 average.
While in the past, it was a rarity for Alabama to score in triple digits, posting 100 points on the offensive ledger has become commonplace for Oats-coached teams. Over the last six years, Alabama has scored at least 100 points on 24 occasions: 2024-25 (4), 2023-24 (10), 2022-23 (5), 2021-22 (1), 2020-21 (2), and 2019-20 (2).
Oats and the Tide seem to be stretching offensive boundaries as well, as the team’s output has seen a tremendous increase over the last six seasons. At 91.1 points per game, Alabama currently has the top scoring offense in the country (second is Kentucky with a 90.2 average).
Here’s a look at Alabama’s points per game numbers since Oats arrived at the Capstone:
2024-25 – 91.1
2023-24 – 90.1
2022-23 – 81.2
2021-22 – 79.5
2020-21 – 79.7
2019-20 – 82.0
This season, Alabama has attempted at least 30 three-pointers in every game but four (UNC-Asheville, Purdue, Rutgers, and Oklahoma) and had a season-high 55 attempts against South Dakota State. Essentially, Alabama is getting more shots up, shooting more threes, and giving itself more of a chance to score than the other team listed in the box score.
And though this high-scoring, heavy-on-the-three philosophy has certainly elevated Alabama’s basketball program to its greatest heights, the question still remains: “Can the Crimson Tide bring home a title if it has an off-shooting night?”
Similar to a home run-hitting team in baseball, a basketball team that relies heavily on the three-pointer can often invite a “feast or famine” dynamic into play. However, Oats and the Crimson Tide seem to be unaffected and undeterred when the shots don’t seem to be falling as they’d like. Perhaps it’s because Alabama leads its opponents in every statistical category (the Crimson Tide has scored more points, made more field goals, made more three pointers, made more free throws, grabbed more rebounds, made more assists, made more steals, and made more blocks than its opponents) and its ability to guard, get to the line, and convert enough 2’s and second chance opportunities provides a neutralizing effect.
Does the trend continue as Alabama marches through a rugged 2025 conference slate that includes away games at South Carolina, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Mississippi State, Arkansas, Texas, Missouri, and Tennessee, and faces eight opponents currently ranked in the top 25?
If anything, Alabama’s ability to make you pay from long distance is something its opponents will have to accept. Just how much remains to be seen. TG
Cover photo: Alabama guard Aden Holloway. Holloway is second on the team with 32 three-pointers made on the 2024-25 season. Photo courtesy UA Athletics.
