TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The Alabama men’s basketball team spent time this offseason working out at Deontay Wilder’s gym in Northport, running the bleachers at Bryant-Denny Stadium and going through a boot camp-like team retreat during a weekend in Sylacauga.

Fans likely caught a glimpse of those activities through photos and videos the Crimson Tide posted on its various social media accounts leading up to the 2019-20 regular season.

But another thing Alabama did was read a book. Carrying on a tradition that started in his time at Buffalo, first-year head coach Nate Oats, his staff and his players all read “Pound The Stone: 7 Lessons to Develop Grit on the Path to Mastery” by Joshua Medcalf this summer.

“The whole point of it is … it’s not that 101st blow to the stone that breaks it, it’s the 100 before it,” Oats said Thursday morning. “We just talk about pounding the stone. You’ve just got to keep getting stops, keep getting stops, keep getting stops. You may miss four or five shots in a row, but eventually, if you keep getting stops and the stone breaks and you go on a big run.”

A perfect example of that occurred in Alabama’s 78-59 win over Florida Atlantic on Monday.

With the Crimson Tide leading the Owls just 25-23 at the 4:22 mark in the first half, Alabama used an 18-2 surge to end the half and take a 43-25 lead into the locker room. The Tide was a perfect 4-of-4 from the field during the 18-2 run, including 3-of-3 from beyond the arc.

“I think you can crack them when you’re really focused in on getting a stop every possession down,” Oats said. “That’s what happened. We got stops, some run-outs, hit three threes in that 18-2 run, and I think that kind of cracked that stone and then we were able to win the game.

“We feel like if we really just pound the stone on the defensive end and play the right way that eventually you crack them and you go on a run, open the game up and get you a win there.”

Alabama guard Jaden Shackelford

Oats’ teams read a different book every year at Buffalo, including Medcalf’s “Pound The Stone” a few years ago. The message in the book has been preached throughout the program.

“You’re working on that stone, and it might the 100th strike that it breaks, or it might be the 1,000th strike that it breaks, but eventually it will break,” strength and conditioning coach Mike Snowden said. “We relay to the guys that whether it’s getting a lift in, whether it’s getting shots in in the gym on your own at night, whether it’s getting to bed at a decent time, making sure you’re putting the right food in your body, it all counts and it’s going to pay off here soon.”

Like their head coach, the players seemed to enjoy the mandatory team reading.

“It’s a great idea to have meetings about things that we might do as a team,” guard Kira Lewis said. “I feel like everybody can get better as a reader, so it was a great idea.”

Added guard Jaden Shackelford: “That book was great. There were a lot of lessons that you learned in there. It’s pretty much just pounding the stone, doing something even though you don’t see results as quickly as you’d like but just staying with it and just going.”

Alabama (1-1) will look to keep pounding the stone Friday when it travels to Rhode Island (1-1) for its first road game of the season. In what will be the third-ever meeting between the two teams, where the Tide owns a 2-0 record, Oats sees a chance to boost UA’s resume.

“It would be huge,” Oats said. “We’ve talked about it -- the A10’s looked really good. VCU beat LSU, Saint Joe’s beat UConn. The A10’s going to be back to where they have maybe three or four NCAA Tournament teams, I would think, and Rhode Island is, in my mind, it will be one of those teams in the hunt for that. If we could get a road win against an NCAA Tournament team, I think this is huge in March, and we addressed that with the team.

“Not that you should have to let them know how important this is, but I think it’s really important. We’ve only got so many opportunities for non-conference road wins against NCA Tournament teams. I think probably two -- probably this one and Penn State. They’re both quality teams, so we’ve got to do everything we can to get this win tomorrow.”

Alabama point guard Kira Lewis and head coach Nate Oats

The Crimson Tide will take on the Rams at the Thomas M. Ryan Center on Friday, Nov. 15, at 6:30 p.m. CT. The Alabama-Rhode Island matchup will air on NBC Sports Network.

SCOUTING RHODE ISLAND

-- Rhode Island owns a record of 1-1 on the young season, having defeated LIU 76-65 in its season opener on Nov. 5, followed by a 73-55 loss at then-N0. 7/8 Maryland on Nov. 9. Last season, the Rams finished with an 18-15 overall mark which included wins in six of their final seven games of the year.

-- Rhode Island seniors Cyril Langevine and Jeff Dowtin were joined by junior Fatts Russell on the 2019-20 Atlantic 10 Men’s Basketball Preseason All-Conference Team. URI and VCU were the only schools to have three players among the 18 named to the preseason team.

-- Dowtin currently tops Rhode Island in scoring (13.5 ppg) and field goals made (10) and attempted (31), while Russell is the team leader in assists (5.5 apg), minutes (37.5 mpg) and steals (3.0 spg) while ranking second in scoring (11.5 ppg). Meanwhile, Langevine has been an inside force who is averaging a double-double at 11.0 points and 16.0 rebounds a contest.

-- As a team, the Rams were picked to finish fourth in the Atlantic 10 Preseason Poll. A big reason why is the team returns 87 percent of its scoring output from a year ago, including all five starters and six of its top seven scorers from last season’s squad. Those six players combined for 1,986 of Rhode Island’s 2,293 points last season.

-- Head coach David Cox is in his second season at the helm of the URI program. Despite inheriting a team that lost six seniors heading into the 2018-19 campaign, he guides the Rams to an 18-15 overall mark and was named as one of 12 national finalists for the 2019 Joe B. Hall award, presented annually to the top first-year head coach. He enters Friday night’s contest with a 19-16 (.543) overall mark.

INJURY UPDATE ON JONES

Junior wing Herbert Jones did not play in Alabama’s last game against Florida Atlantic due to a hyperextended elbow. Oats provided the latest injury update on Jones on Thursday.

“Herb participated in some of the stuff in practice today,” Oats said. “He didn’t do any of the scrimmage-type stuff. He looks fairly decent, to me, in the skill stuff. We just didn’t want to get him hurt. We’re going to see what he feels like tomorrow in shootaround, and he’ll be a kind of game-time decision. But he’s a pretty tough kid. I would anticipate, barring any setback from what he did today -- the other thing, though, is we don’t want to get him hurt any more for down the road. We really need him healthy a few weeks from now. Clarke (Holter) does a pretty good job. He’s going to give me a call on him after shootaround tomorrow morning.”

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).