Coming off a wretched performance, on Tuesday Alabama’s basketball team will host a Georgia State Panthers team that already has one Southeastern Conference scalp this season.

Coach Avery Johnson’s Crimson Tide managed only a 38 percent shooting performance in losing to Central Florida in Orlando last week by a deceivingly close score of 70-64. Alabama led for only 29 seconds and by only two points against the Knights. (It was meaningful that the home team UCF made 23-36 free throws, Bama 9-14, but the big statistic was that the Tide missed 14 of its first 15 field goal attempts.)

Meanwhile, a few days before that, Georgia State defeated Georgia, and it wasn’t close. The Panthers took a 91-67 decision over the Bulldogs in Athens.

Alabama and Georgia State will meet at 7 p.m. CST Tuesday in Coleman Coliseum with SEC Network+ providing Internet coverage. The Crimson Tide is 5-2 and the Panthers are 5-3. Bama is 5-2 on the season, GSU 5-3.

Former Alabama backup player Devin Mitchell (freshman in the 2015 season) is now a senior at Georgia State, but has been injured. He played for the first time this season in the Panthers’ last game, a 78-52 loss to Liberty, seeing action for 12 minutes and failing to score. Last year he had 98 three-pointers and has 132 in his Georgia State career.

The Panthers are a perimeter-driven team with top four figures, all guards, in double figures in scoring. Junior D’Marcus Simonds (6-3, 195) leads the Panthers at 21.6 points per game; senior Malik Benlevi (6-6, 225) averages 12.1; senior Jeff Thomas (6-5, 190) is at 11.3; and sophomore Kane Williams (6-3, 190) 10.4.

Alabama Coach Avery Johnson

“They start three or four guards,” said Alabama Coach Johnson. “This is the only team we’ve played that doesn’t play a center or power forward.” That’s certainly a change from the last game when Bama had to deal with UCF’s 7-6 Tacko Fall in the middle.

Georgia State was an NCAA Tournament team last year and is predicted to win the Sun Belt this season.

Alabama senior center Donta Hall predicts “a fast-paced game.”

Although Bama has had the same starting lineup in every game this season, there have been hints that changes could be coming. To date the Tide has started with 6-3 freshman Kira Lewis, Jr. (leading scorer at 14.3 points per game) at point, 6-7 soph Herbert Jones (9.4 ppg, 5.6 rebounds per game) and 6-5 soph John Petty (12.6 ppg) on the wings, and 6-9 senior Donta Hall (8.4 ppg, 6.9 rpg) and 6-9 soph Galin Smith (5.0 ppg, 2.7 rpg) inside.

“We’re always evaluating our team,” Johnson said. “We’ll always give our team the best chance to win.”

One expected to perhaps get more playing time is Tevin Mack, a 6-6, 225-pound forward who is averagi.ng 7.9 points and 3.4 rebounds per game in a back-up role.

“When he’s making shots, we’re better, but he also has to do it on the defensive end, too,” Johnson said. “He’s had some ups and downs. We need him to be consistent and he’s getting better after not playing basketball for almost two years.”

Other top players off the bench have been 6-5 junior Dazon Ingram (8.3 ppg, 4.8 rpg) and 6-9 soph Alex Reese (7.9 ppg).

Johnson said that Reese sprained an ankle in Saturday’s practice and did not practice Sunday and listed him as “day-to-day.”

Alabama and Georgia State have met twice previously, the Tide winning both games, including the last meeting in 2013.