Keon Ellis and JD Davison Steal the Show at Tide Tipoff 2021
Excitement was in the air in Foster Auditorium as the Alabama men's and women's basketball program celebrated Tide Tipoff 2021. Shooting contests, skills competitions and James Spann stimulated the Crimson Tide faithful who are excited for the new season to get started.
"It was fun, good for our players, exciting. The first time the public's got a chance to see our full team. Obviously it's not a game, excitement's in the air you can tell students are excited, our players are excited," said Alabama head coach Nate Oats. "It was a good time, I thought they did a good job putting it on. I thought the players had fun, I thought the fans enjoyed it. I was happy to see our guys having some fun in front of some fans again."
The men's and women's basketball team mixed into teams and competed in a 3-point contest to warm up the crowd. Transfer guard Nia Daniel teamed up with Jaden Shackelford to win the shooting contest over Hannah Barber and Jahvon Quinerly.
The teams then split up and maneuvered an obstacle course in a skills competition relay. Barber wouldn't walk away empty handed as she was a part of the winning relay team along with sophomore Myra Gordon, senior Ruth Koang, sophomore Delaney Heard and senior Britton Johnson.
The night was punctuated with a dunk contest between freshman JD Davison, sophomores Juwan Gary and Darius Miles and senior Keon Ellis. The crowd rose to its feet for the celebrity judges, Alabama track and field athlete Gabe Serrano, meteorologist James Spann and Alabama basketball alums Jasmine Walker and Lawson Schaffer.
Ellis and Davison advanced to the final round after the accumulating the highest total scores on their first two dunks. Davison used all 45 of his seconds trying a dunk manipulating the ball under his body as he attacked the rim. Ellis closed out the dunk contest with an authoritative slam converting his attempt and thus winning the competition.
Both programs face exhibition contests next as they continue to prepare for the season ahead. The men's team takes on Louisiana on Sunday, Oct. 24 at 2 p.m. CT and the women's team hosts Alabama-Huntsville on Thursday, Nov. 4 at 6 p.m.