Why Alabama practices are shorter now, other Tide notes

Avery Johnson

Alabama head coach Avery Johnson watches the action in the second half of an NCAA college basketball game against Vanderbilt, in Nashville, Tenn Feb. 9.AP

Alabama plays at South Carolina Tuesday night at 6 p.m.

Here are some notes heading into the game:

Shorter practices

Hoping to help with his team’s energy level and with keeping players fresh, Avery Johnson has significantly shortened Alabama’s practices.

In the past, practices could be in the range of 140 minutes. These recent practices, though, have been about 75 minutes with players then working on free throws on their own for 30 minutes or so.

“The main thing is we’re just trying to do whatever is best for our team to give us a competitive advantage,” Johnson said. “We have a 17-year old point guard (Kira Lewis) that we require a lot from him in games and we don’t want to necessarily leave his game legs in practice just because we’re trying to show that we can coach or we’ve got some cute drills. We’re beyond that now. We’ve just got to manage the team. I think that’s a part of coaching, not just calling plays in a game or rotation. I think it’s knowing how to manage your teams leading up to games.”

The first two pre-South Carolina practices were among Alabama’s shortest practices of the year, according to Johnson.

“We took a lot of drills out of our practice that we just thought didn’t make any sense and we wanted to get off to a quicker start in practice,” Johnson said. “So after the warm-up, there’s no sliding into practice anymore. We’re really starting fast, and hopefully that’s giving us some energy. Just a lot of the waste that we thought we had in practice, we just kind of eliminated it.”

NCAA tournament resume

Alabama is No. 53 in the latest NCAA NET rankings.

Ninety-six of the 112 most recent bracket projections compiled by Bracket Matrix have the Tide making the NCAA tournament.

On average, Alabama is a 12 seed in those projections.

Encouraging performance from veteran guard

Johnson is hoping to continue to get the kind of all-around production he got from Dazon Ingram during the Tide’s win over Vanderbilt on Saturday.

The redshirt junior guard had his most points since Dec. 4 (13) as well as season-highs for rebounds (10) and assists (six). He also only had one turnover after finishing with three or more turnovers in five of the previous six games.

“I thought that was Dazon’s best game this year,” Johnson said. “Maybe he’s had more points or more whatever. It doesn’t matter. His focus. I thought his assist to turnover ratio was very good. His defense on and off the ball. He got a big offensive rebound for us late in the game. That’s the guy that we really recruited. ... He was ready to go from start to finish. If we can get more of that, that takes us to another level and that takes him to an elite status, and that’s what he’s capable of. But I think overall, I think we’re approaching a stronger finish to his season than what he had at the beginning.”

South Carolina has improved

South Carolina has “picked it up,” according to Johnson, since opening the season 5-7 in non-conference play.

The Gamecocks enter Tuesday night 14-13 overall and 9-5 in conference play.

In SEC play, South Carolina ranks first in the conference in 3-point field goal percentage (42.3) and is tied for third in 3-pointers made per game (8.4).

“They’re a little bit different than (Frank Martin’s) teams in the past,” Johnson said. “This is arguably his best 3-point shooting team and they’re very efficient from the 3-point line. That’s been something that they rely on. That’s been a weapon for them, whereas in the past his team was all about grinding, grinding, grinding and points in the paint.”

Matt Zenitz is an Alabama and Auburn reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mzenitz.

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