Can Alabama Basketball Contain Arizona's 'Gazelle' in Birmingham?

The Alabama Safari Park and Montgomery Zoo are perhaps the only two places in the state where one can find a gazelle.

However, according to Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats, there will be one in Legacy Arena at BJCC in Birmingham on Saturday night. It will be in the form of Arizona forward Koa Peat, as the No. 1 Wildcats will take on the No. 12 Crimson Tide in Birmingham.

Peat is a five-star freshman forward who has shined throughout the young season, and he'll be a major challenge for the Crimson Tide.

"He's athletic, he's physical. He likes to drive you," Oats said during Friday's press conference. "They'll put him in the post some, too. One, you can't let him out in transition. I mean, he looks like a gazelle running the floor at his size. I mean, he's really good at transition.

"So we've got to get back and if we expect our guards to be cross-matched the whole game, because our bigs are woven back, and our guards are having to pick them up, being the first guys back. We're going to be in some trouble because our guards are not going to handle him.

Oats explained that a "huge point of emphasis" will be for Alabama's frontcourt to get back in transition quickly enough to contain the gazelle, so "our guards aren't stuck on him."

The 6-foot-8, 235-pounder is averaging an Arizona-best 15.9 points with 5.5 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 1.1 steals and 0.9 blocks per game. The frontcourt players that will likely be shadowing Peat throughout the night are Taylor Bol Bowen, Keitenn Bristow and Amari Allen.

"He runs hard in transition," Oats said. "Once we get in the half-court, we've got to keep him from driving the ball as best as we possibly can because that's what he's elite at. He's not really a shooter. I don't think he's made a three on the year."

"He's going to be a pro, probably sooner rather than later. And eventually they'll want him to make some threes. But for now, he's a drive the ball downhill [type of player]. He'll shoot some midrange shots for sure, not really threes. So we don't really have to worry about him out there, per se.

"Who knows, maybe tomorrow he'll show us three-point range off. He's been hiding it from us all year. But, we've got to be worried about keeping him from scoring the ball in the paint. It really is the big issue with him."

This is a return neutral-site game from the 2023-24 season when these two programs played in Phoenix. Arizona won that contest 87-74 on Dec. 20, 2023.

The Crimson Tide played in the Birmingham venue, Legacy Arena at BJCC, last season when it defeated Illinois 100-87. As expected, most of the fans in the building had Alabama roots and this was the case for Arizona when it faced the Tide in the aforementioned game in Phoenix.

The Crimson Tide is 2-2 against top-10 teams this season, and Saturday's game will be its first this year against the top-ranked program in the latest AP Top 25. Nevertheless, this is far from the first time that Alabama head coach Nate Oats has gone head-to-head with the AP No. 1 team, as he's 3-4 since his arrival in 2019.