00:00As Alabama and Nate Oates go into the world's most famous arena and stun Rick Pitino and the St. John's Red Storm with a 103-96 win in an extremely high-scoring, high-paced, and exciting game at MSG.
00:18And what's of note is the play of the guards of Alabama. Phileon and obviously Aiden Holloway were fantastic, scoring 46 points for Nate Oates.
00:30They got 17 points from Wrightsell and, of course, Ball Bowen, particularly in the second half, big plays by Ball Bowen in the pick-and-roll game.
00:39St. John's Zubietz-Four is fantastic with a double-double, 27 points.
00:43Obviously, you've got to look at the play of Bryce Hopkins, a transfer from Providence, played well for them.
00:49And Sellers and Ian Jackson got 14 apiece for St. John's.
00:53So why did they win?
00:56Simply put it to coach. Let me take you into the huddle and tell you what I saw.
01:01St. John's decided they were going to switch all ball screens early in the game.
01:05So Nate Oates recognized it, got himself into favorable matchups for Holloway and Phileon to kind of get space, being guarded by a big with the ability to drive or step back and make the three.
01:20St. John's adjusted to the second half.
01:22They tried to play straight up, maybe a little bit of a hedge.
01:26But what happened was, in basketball terms, you want the guy on offense to be going east-west on ball screens, being sidelined to sidelined.
01:38St. John's kept opening up their hips and allowing Silphilion and Aidan Holloway to turn the corner.
01:45It didn't matter that both of them had four fouls in the last five minutes, and one of them fouled out.
01:51It did not matter.
01:52They could not stop them.
01:54And you talked about, Rick Pitino after the game, about the worst defensive performance in New York City basketball history.
02:00He may have been right.
02:01But I will say this.
02:03Very, very impressed by the scoring acumen of both teams.
02:08And if they can shore up their defenses, both teams will make a run and march.
02:14And I mean a deep one.
02:16Next ranked versus ranked matchup.
02:18In the end zone, two good friends, John Calipari, Tom Izzo.
02:23Michigan State defeats Arkansas by a play of 69 scores.
02:28I should say of 69-66.
02:30When you look at this game, if you talk about the guard play in game one, it's about the forward play in game number two.
02:38Jackson Kohler, who I talked about last week as being an integral part of Michigan State, outplayed Trevon Brazil, getting 10 points and 7 rebounds.
02:49But it was more than that.
02:50It was Cohen Carr getting your 15 points and 7 rebounds.
02:53But what can you say about the freshman, Cam Ward?
02:57No, no, no, no.
02:58Not the Cam Ward that played in Miami that's with the Tennessee Titans.
03:15This game may not mean much to a lot of people, but it means a lot to me that they played each other and they should both be competitive teams once they get into March.
03:28Big win by Michigan State in a really great game, 69-66.
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