Alabama basketball doesn’t regularly play teams like Saint Mary’s. The Gaels, who face the Crimson Tide in the NCAA Tournament’s second round on Sunday, love to slow games down.

That’s not the norm in conference play for UA.

“We come from the SEC and it’s not many teams that slow down like that,” Alabama guard Aden Holloway said Saturday. “A lot of SEC teams, damn near all of them, like to get up and down. So just playing SEC ball for three months straight, two months straight, it’s gonna be some adversity tomorrow, but as long as we just stay true to what we do, we’ll be good.”

The Gaels are one of the nation’s top offensive rebounding teams. The Crimson Tide will need to be solid on the glass to stop them, and create opportunities to run in transition.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said an improved performance on the boards could be the key to winning the tempo battle.

“Outside of gambling, and I’m not sure that I want to start pressing gambling, that’s not really our style on defense, you may not be able to speed these guys up on their offensive end,” Oats said. “but what you can do is eliminate two shots, three shots. And then all of a sudden, you have a 25 to 30-second possession turn into a 45 to 50-second possession, turn into over a minute possession. That’s when you’re going to have some problems.”

It’s not as if Alabama has only played in track meets this season. Even in SEC play, Texas A&M and Tennessee prefer to slow the game down a bit, compared to the rest of the conference at least.

Alabama guard Labaron Philon stressed how important defensive effort will be on Sunday.

“If we turn them over tomorrow, I think we’re gonna be fine and we’re gonna get the W,” Philon said. “But if we let them just slow pace the game and try to control it, it’s gonna be a dogfight.”

The seventh-seeded Saint Mary’s squad couldn’t dictate the pace early against Vanderbilt on Friday. The Commodores were able to get out and run, but the No. 10-seed seemed to run out of gas.

Alabama is much deeper than its fellow SEC member, which could be an advantage as the game moves along.

“(We’re) able to go out there, have different combinations out there,” forward Jarin Stevenson said. “So just pushing the pace is gonna be important. We have subs ready to go in, so yeah, (depth is) going to be important.

Oats emphasized again that Alabama likely wouldn’t be able to force Saint Mary’s into playing blazing fast on offense.

“We’re not even going to try to speed them up,” Oat said. “We’re just going to play fast on offense every chance we have the opportunity to play fast on offense. Like it doesn’t — maybe occasionally you can speed them up or try to speed them up with– we’re not really a pressing team with a press or a trap or whatever, but it’s not what we do. We’ve never done it.

“We’ve still got the No. 1 tempo in the country, and we haven’t really tried to speed anybody up all year on the defensive end, if you will. It’s just, can you get stops, get the first rebound and get out? Because they are sending three, and I do think we have better athletes.”

Alabama and Saint Mary’s are scheduled to face off at 5:10 p.m. CT Sunday in Cleveland. The game will be aired on TNT, and the winner will move on to the Sweet Sixteen.