Alabama didn’t need Brandon Garrison to fill up the scoring column Tuesday night. It needed him to make life miserable for Sam Houston, and that’s exactly what the Crimson Tide got in a 96-74 season-opening win.
The Kentucky transfer has been the most polarizing newcomer on Alabama’s roster this season, and for good reason. He spent two years frustrating Wildcats fans with a motor that could swing from electric to invisible, which made him a hard player to trust from night to night. Alabama saw both sides of that during its three exhibition games.
Against Sam Houston, though, Garrison looked like the version Alabama can actually build around. The box score only shows 9 points on 3-of-7 shooting and 4 rebounds in 17 minutes.
But the real damage came on the other end, where he piled up 5 stocks and led the Tide with 10 deflections. That was enough to earn him Alabama’s first hard hat of the season.
Tonight’s Hard Hat Award Winner presented by @mcabeeinc: Brandon Garrison #RollTide | #BlueCollarBasketball pic.twitter.com/SxdUHW7uUk
- Alabama Men’s Basketball (@AlabamaMBB) November 4, 2026
Nate Oats made it clear afterward that Garrison’s fingerprints were all over the night, especially on defense.
“I thought it was led by Brandon Garrison’s pressure on their bigs, the kind of way they play through the bigs at the top," Oats said regarding Alabama forcing so many turnovers. "And Brandon’s athleticism, defensive intensity, and effort really, to me, led the way.
He got us going. You look, we’ve got the analytics box score.
They give me an offensive-defensive leverage. Like, are we better when you’re in the game on offense or defense.
There’s three guys that were positive on both sides of the ball. And Brandon was one of them.
Brandon, Drew, and then Amari.”
That pressure helped fuel a defensive performance Alabama has been waiting to show off. Sam Houston hit 15 of 33 from deep, which softened the look of the Tide’s defense a bit, but the Bearkats had a brutal time getting anything at the rim. They finished 10 of 32 from inside the three-point line.
The bigger story was Alabama’s ability to turn defense into chaos. The Tide forced 23 turnovers, collected 17 steals and blocked 10 shots. That 23-turnover total is the most forced by an Oats-coached team in Tuscaloosa, and it’s the most for the program since 2012.
That kind of disruption has been missing in recent seasons. Alabama ranked 248th in steal percentage last year and 317th the year before, a big reason the defense never quite reached the level the staff wanted. On Tuesday, the pressure was constant, the hands were active, and the ball kept popping loose.
It also created the kind of easy offense Alabama needs when the jumper isn’t falling. The Tide shot just 32% from three, but they still piled up 41 fast-break points. With this team’s athleticism, that open-floor game can be a real weapon.
It’s only one game, and one game can lie. But if Alabama’s defense is for real, and if Garrison brings that kind of effort every night, the ceiling on this team starts looking awfully high.
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