Oakland Golden Grizzlies at Alabama Crimson Tide
Monday, November 9, 2026
7:30 PM ET, Coleman Coliseum
No. 20 Alabama is a 32.5-point favorite at most books, with the total at 172.5. My play is Oakland +32.5, a lean in a buy game rather than a bet I’d pound.
Greg Kampe has scheduled his way into a brutal opening stretch: Michigan, then a West Coast swing at Stanford and UC Santa Barbara on back-to-back days, then a flight to Tuscaloosa. After the loss in Santa Barbara, the longtime Oakland coach summed it up: “What we did was kind of insane, I am exhausted and I didn’t play.” Fair. The Golden Grizzlies are 0-3 and haven’t looked sharp. But 32.5 is a lot of points to lay against a team that has actually been competitive in stretches.
Oats’ track meet runs both ways
Alabama is exactly what you think it is. The Tide are coming off four straight Sweet 16 trips, average nearly 99 points through two games and play at one of the fastest tempos in the country. Amari Allen just posted the fifth triple-double in program history against Arkansas State, and Alabama piled up 41 fast-break points in that win.
Here’s the catch for anyone laying the big number: Arkansas State scored 86 in Coleman Coliseum, and Sam Houston scored 74. Nate Oats said Arkansas State’s 15 made threes exposed his defense. Alabama’s pace creates blowouts, but it also hands the other team possessions, and a hot-shooting dog can keep the margin from exploding. Oakland made 10 threes at Santa Barbara and got 23 points on 9-of-12 shooting from Chris Fields Jr. at Stanford, where it trailed by only five at the half.
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The numbers back the points. Barttorvik has Alabama around 23rd nationally and Oakland in the 220s. Plug in Bama’s pace and home court and you get a Tide win somewhere in the low-to-mid 20s, not 33. Early-season ratings still lean heavily on preseason priors, so treat that as a guide, not gospel. Still, the gap between the model and the market is big enough to notice.
The tired-legs problem I can’t ignore
This is the fourth road game in eight days for Oakland, and the last two went badly once fatigue set in. Kampe himself said his team’s bodies weren’t where they should be against Santa Barbara, which buried 18 threes. Alabama forces turnovers in bunches and lives in transition, so if the Grizzlies’ legs are gone, the Tide could hang 110 and this ticket is dead by halftime. The last meeting, in 2021, was a 27-point Alabama win, and this Tide team plays faster.
That’s why it’s a lean. Alabama should win big. I just think 32.5 is pricing in the version of this game where Oakland folds, and the Grizzlies showed real fight for long stretches out west.
Projected score: Alabama 100, Oakland 72
The Pick: Oakland +32.5
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