Nate Oats offers thoughts on the contributions of Rylan Griffen, Noah Gurley

Alabama escaped an upset loss on Wednesday night to Mississippi State, defeating the Bulldogs 66-63 in a come-from-behind victory. From the top to the bottom of the lineup, every player in the Crimson Tide played their part in their gritty win, including bench players like Rylan Griffen and Noah Gurley. Following the game, head coach Nate Oats spoke on the impact the two had Wednesday’s big win.

“Rylan has no fear, he’s a super confident kid, he prepares himself to play well,” Oats said. “He’s been shooting the ball really well in practice, he shot well at Missouri, we expect those to go in. He’s a good player, he’s going to be very good for us, when we need him to be this year and down the road.”

Griffen was a part of a few huge plays down the stretch for Alabama, including a three-pointer in the second half that gave the Crimson Tide their first lead of the game. Gurley also made an impact in his minutes, securing a key offensive rebound and assist in the second half that were crucial in the team’s 18th win of the season.

“And then I thought Gurley was great, the assist he had to (Noah) Clowney. Clowney did a great job at the free throw line tonight going seven of eight, he’s worked hard to get that fixed like (Nick) Pringle has. But Gurley got the o-board, he made a couple big plays,” Oats said.

Gurley may not have scored in his 12 minutes off of the bench, but played crucial defense on the perimeter down the stretch that helped hold the Bulldogs to just 27 second half points.

“I thought the defense he had, I can’t remember who he was on which guard it was on it was either (Shakeel) Moore or (Eric) Reed if I remember right, I thought it was really good for like 10 seconds and then he just reached in at the end,” Oats said. “But I thought you could tell he was ready to go, moving his feet, sitting down guard.”

There’s no question that Alabama had to lean on their bench to pull out Wednesday’s win, staying unbeaten in conference play and looking to extend their winning streak to 10 wins in their next matchup.

“So we need some veteran guys that maybe aren’t playing huge huge minutes to come in. I thought Dom (Welch) and Gurley both did that for us tonight in my opinion.”