TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 18 Alabama basketball destroyed Oakland 109-86 at home on Monday evening, advancing to a 3-0 start to the 2026-27 season.

Let's get into both the good and bad from the Crimson Tide's victory in the second-ever basketball edition of Tide Up, Tide Down, BamaCentral's reactionary postgame series that evaluates some of the best and worst players, moments, and trends from Alabama's season.

Typically we'll have three positives and three negatives, but when Oakland head coach Greg Kampe, who has held that position since 1984, says "there's no weakness" in Alabama, let's subtract one of the cons.

Tide Up: London and The Little Guy

Although it's only been three games, Jemison once again proved why players in Year 2 under Nate Oats are so much better than the prior season. He tied a career-high 20 points on Friday night on 7 of 7 from the field. Six of those shots (and makes) were from behind the arc.

Jemison was often assigned to take corner threes last season, and while he's doing it again this year, the sophomore is failing to miss. Jemison and Amari Allen laughed when asked during the postgame press conference how many corner threes the former takes each practice, to which he responded "a lot" three times.

And speaking of threes, Alabama freshman guard Anderson Diaz, who reclassified from the 2027 class and is the age of a senior in high school, dropped a new career-high nine points. All of his scoring production came at the very end of the game, shooting 3 of 4 from behind the arc. Diaz wasn't even Kampe's radar heading into this one.

"The little guy at the end made three-in-a-row," Kampe said. "Like, who's he? He was not even on our scouting report. Who's he? And he goes out and makes three-in-a-row."

These two helped Alabama shoot 24 of 46 (52.2 percent) from deep. The Crimson Tide only took 16 shots from two-point range!

Tide Down: Trouble on the Glass

Well, here we go again. Alabama's goal of the offseason was to get bigger in order to grab more rebounds. It worked perfectly last Friday against Arkansas State, as Alabama grabbed 25 offensive rebounds, the most of the Nate Oats era. The Tide's 58 total rebounds were the second-most under Oats.

But Oakland had the edge on Monday. The Golden Grizzlies narrowly beat UA 37-31 in total rebounds, but the numbers on the offensive boards were shocking: 21-7 in favor of Oakland. Kampe and company only scored 12 second-chance points (Alabama scored eight), which is a positive for the Tide, but Alabama should've never been anywhere near that situation.

"I thought Oakland exposed a lot of things, maybe not a lot, but at least some things that we got to work on, rebounding being the biggest one," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "You know, [Oakland's Chris] Fields ends up with seven O-boards. It's a problem. Our entire team only had seven O-boards. There wasn't as many to get, but they had 16 defensive rebounds.

"So our offensive rebounding rate wasn't near what we wanted, and our defensive rebounding rate was terrible. So we've got to do a better job on the glass for sure."

Tide Up: Unselfish Basketball

"They passed the ball as good as you can pass the ball. They were as unselfish as a team could possibly be."

Kampe said this after the game, and he's correct. Alabama tied a school record with 30 assists, which ties a program record. Seven of Alabama's first nine baskets were assisted, all passes coming from a different player. 17 of Alabama's 20 buckets by halftime were assisted, and by the end of the only nine weren't assisted.

"I think a lot of it's the ball movement," Oats said. "I think it starts at the top with your kind of starting backcourt and (Aden) Holloway and Amari, and I thought those guys really get the ball movement right out of the gate. They end up combining for eight assists and only one turnover. I thought they set the tone, and then I think everybody else kind of followed.

"The mudita is great. We've been really trying to work on just getting the ball moving, not having it stick. I thought it was pretty good tonight."

Tide Down: Turnovers

During the 2019-20 and 2021-22 seasons — the early years of the Nate Oats era — the Crimson Tide forced 21 turnovers in a single game. Alabama forced Sam Houston to turn the ball over 23 times during the 96-74 season-opening victory. This broke the most recent team high of 22 against Georgia Tech during the 2011-12 season.

But on Monday, Alabama was the one turning the ball over, doing so 12 times. It wasn't as many as Oakland's 15, but in a game like this, the Crimson Tide should've given the ball away much less. The Golden Grizzlies also capitalized on UA's mistakes by scoring 15 points off turnovers.

Tide Up: Keitenn and the Blockers

Alabama forward Keitenn Bristow only played in 10 games last season before sitting out the rest due to an injury. His numbers weren't anything special, but he got a lot of praise from Oats and his teammates, including Brandon Garrison, who called Bristow the team's "biggest sleeper."

Bristow showed flashes of potential when healthy last season, and so far this year, those flashes have become a part of his every-game output. He's logged three blocks in all three games, with all of Monday night's coming in the first half. Bristow only played for three minutes in the second period, but in the first he tallied nine points and three rebounds in 11 minutes.

Bristow helped Alabama reach 10 blocks against Oakland. It shows a side of the Crimson Tide that hasn't been seen the past couple of years. It's another asset that Alabama can use to beat some of the best teams in the country.

"So for him to have three, [Brandon Garrison] to have two, and a slew of other guys to have one each, I thought was was great," Oats said. "We've had two defenses ranked third in the country here. First one had Herb Jones, who was a big part of that, and he'd kind of come from the weak side, get some blocks a lot. And the second time was when we had Charles (Bediako) in the middle, and then we had (Noah) Clowney at the four spot.

"And so when you can get a guy at the four spot like Clowney, and now Keitenn's doing it, and then Jaxon (Richardson) can kind of do a little bit like Herb, so maybe we get this group to kind of combine more wing, like Jaxon can protect the rim, Keitenn can protect the rim at the four. I think it really helps you, especially those guys can move, react to breakdowns, get over there, make some plays.

"Jaxon's just been out so much with the the injuries, he wasn't able to get a block, but I think he can really give us some more protection, kind of coming from that wing spot, too. I mean, it's been great getting from Keitenn these first three games."