The Alabama Crimson Tide men's basketball team demolished the LSU Tigers in Coleman Coliseum on Saturday, defeating them 106-66. At points throughout the game, superstar freshman Brandon Miller alone was outscoring the entire Tigers team.

The Tide didn't sleep walk to this victory over an inferior opponent. LSU has struggled this season after pushing the reset button on its program following the dismissal of Will Wade. However, the Tigers are a competent team and have a victory over a very tough Arkansas Razorbacks squad.

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Miller opened up the scoring with a 3-point bucket after Charles Bediako won the tipoff and the Tide never looked back. LSU was able to keep it reasonably close for a few minutes, but once the Tide started pulling away, it never stopped.

In front of a sold-out crowd, the Tide dog-walked LSU. Miller finished his day with 31 points and nine rebounds. Hard hat winner Noah Clowney had just four points, but rebounded eight balls and played full throttle on defense. Mark Sears, Rylan Griffen, and Jahvon Quinerly all put 12 points on the board while pulling down five, six, and two rebounds respectively.

The crowd made its presence felt. Coleman was an absolute din throughout the game, but there were two points that were above and away the loudest: when Jaden Bradley hit his half-court buzzer beater heading into halftime, and when walk-on Adam Cottrell drained a three point bucket inside of two minutes to play.

"I was really happy for Adam. He's an unbelievable kid if you had the chance to get to know him. He's added a lot to our program," said head coach Nate Oats of the moment the crowd came unglued for Cottrell's 3-point shot. "I was glad the crowd gave him the eruption they gave him."

Alabama didn't just score at a high clip and play aggressive defense. They also improved in areas they've been wanting to all season. Turnovers were limited to just eight and they rebounded 52 balls, the highest total in SEC play and the third highest total on the season within regulation.

Saturday's victory was the largest margin of victory for the Tide in an SEC game since they beat Auburn 94-53 in 2005.

"Really our defense in the first half, our offensive rebounding, a lot of effort stuff. That's what I was most happy with, that's what we told our guys our focus was going to be on. The offense will take care of itself," said Oats after the game. "Let's make sure we play harder."

This team's goal is to win the SEC and win a national championship. After today's slate of games, the Tide is in control of its own destiny with regards to the conference. The team currently sits atop the conference at 5-0. Oats says they're not looking past any of the seven teams they play before them, but they know they need to keep pace with and beat Tennessee if they want a chance at achieving that goal.

"We know we're more talented than some teams coming in. I'm not gonna try to pump teams up bigger than what they are. I don't lie to our guys, but we tell them more talented teams don't always win. More talented teams win when they play harder, play more together and are more focused and locked in," said Oats.

The Tide now turns its focus to Vanderbilt, who it travels to Nashville to face on Tuesday Jan 17 at 7:30 p.m.

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