“Bama Basketball Breakdown: McNeese brings his high-powered offense and scumbag Will Wade to town.”

A strong game tonight, folks. Last year’s Southland champion, McNeese State, won 30 games in Will Wade’s first season back on the bench and made an NCAA Tournament appearance.

This man and his trail of slime and depravity need no introduction. Let’s just say that Nate Oats absolutely despises him, and has done so since practically his first week as head coach.

And our man has never shied away from expressing his feelings towards Wade.

This is really getting cut and I apologize. With the holiday, I completely lost track of the day. My body and my workload think it’s Sunday.

History of the tape: McNeese State (1-1) at No. 2 Alabama (2-0)

Spread (Total): Alabama -13.5 (167.5)

ASU KenPom: 121 (114 Attack, 132 Defense, 168 Speed)
ASU Evan Miya: 83 (67 Attack, 124 Defense, 291 Speed)
ASU Bart Torvik: 74 (41 Attack, 126 Defense, 178 Speed)
Opponent NET: Q3

Alabama KenPom: 6 (3 Attacks, 22 Defenses, 2 Speed)
Alabama Evan Miya: 6 (3 Attacks, 7 Defenses, 2 Speed)
Alabama Bart Torvik: 8 (3 offensive, 14 defensive, 12 tempo)
NET ranking: N/A

In Wade’s first season with the Cowboys, MSU posted a 30-4 record, won the Southland regular-season and tournament titles, boasted one of the best perimeter offenses in the country and earned a bid to the 12th Division. Round of the NCAA Tournament. From under .500 to a NET ranking of 55 overnight.

Wade has never been known for particularly fast-paced offenses, and this year is no exception – they’ve been downright icy at times. But his teams have always benefited from the double-motion system, which frees up the outside view, emphasizes ball control while minimizing turnovers (he even played three-point guard rotations at times at LSU). In the post, the Cowboys are going for over-tracking to allow for easy looks at the basket, a big helping of bunnies and oops. Defensively, it is a half-court pressure system in which the guards come forward to claim the opponent’s backcourt as they cross midcourt, while the center is positioned under the basket and the wings are set to that they either switch at the kick-off or prevent easy penetration of passes to opposing shooters.

The Cowboys are on the smaller side. The front space in particular is very small – the entire bottom third and only 20% of the percentile in the middle. There is nice size at PG and in the backfield in general, but that has long been a staple for Wade, and that was certainly the case at LSU. However, this means the Cowboys don’t rebound well at all – Not relative, not efficient and not percentage. That’s why they lost a game last Friday to the tall, slender South Dakota State Jackrabbits in Brookings. SDSU big man Oskar Cluff feasted on McNeese, scoring 14 boards, 14 points, 5 assists and 4 blocks. Cliff, Sherrell, Jarin, Little Mo and the ‘Stache should have an absolute field day against the overpowering Pokes.

But there is talent here, particularly at the guard position, and MSU will use three guards to start and base offense. The Cowboys have four All guards average double figures, with a fifth coming very close to that number. Senior Alyn Breed leads in pure average and is dangerous off the bench.

Want to guess how Breed ended up at McNeese after being a starter at Providence? It won’t shock you:

Providence security guard Alyn Breed has been suspended indefinitely after local police charged him with multiple felonies stemming from an off-campus incident Saturday, the school said in a statement.

In fact, the entire backcourt is full of power conference transfers. Sincere Parker (St. Louis) – 15.9 PPG, 4.3 RPG, 0.9 APG; Brandon Murray (Ole Miss) – 4.3 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 1.4 APG Quadir Copeland (Syracuse); 9.6 PPG, 4.6 RPG, 2.8 APG. But Jahvon Garcia and DJ Richards also return, and they’re coming off 11-PPG seasons of their own. Their only star is veteran PF Christian Shumate, who averaged nearly a double-double last season (13/9) and is off to another strong start this year (10/8).

Make no mistake: This will primarily be a war of attrition in the backfield, with each team fielding a half-dozen shooters. “Bama’s defense will have their hands full.” Nate Oats and Will Wade had high-scoring games that often got out of hand, but it would be the Tide’s job to concentrate their firepower where there is a clear and decisive advantage : in the post.

As I said about Arkansas State on Friday, the game should be a little tougher than the jerseys suggest. There’s a reason the Cowboys finished 40th in NET last year. And this year they have become even better, even deeper and even more experienced. In fact, it’s the most experienced team the Tide will face all year (8th). This will initially appear to be a NET Tier 3 competition, but will almost certainly be a high Tier 2 competition, perhaps even T1, by the end of the season.

This is also a game where the defense has to be on par, their rebounding is outstanding, and “Bama has to blow away its looks when it gets them, especially in the paint.” That margin is small for a reason. That is a very The Tide is a good mid-level opponent tonight.

You can bet Nate Oats has told his boys this and would like to run the Cowboys – and their dirty coach – out of the building.

This is your game thread for the evening. Tip-offs will take place at 6 p.m. and can be seen on SEC Network.

Roll Tide and tune in below.