Nate Oats uses James Rojas to call out rest of Alabama team

Alabama forward James Rojas was far from the focal point in the Crimson Tide’s 80-77 loss to LSU on Saturday, as has been the case all season — but Nate Oats still sang high praise for the 6-foot-9, 220-pound forward from Jamestown, NY.

Rojas, a former JUCO All-American, transferred to Alabama from Hutchinson Community College ahead of the 2021-22 season, and he was hardly the story of Alabama’s roster last season, averaging 2.9 points and 2.6 rebounds in 11.1 minutes per contest over 30 games. This season, Rojas made a late debut on the year, after recovering from an ACL injury, but he’s since been a steady contributor for Oats. Logging 13.5 minutes per contest, Rojas is averaging 5.6 points per game, along with 2.6 rebounds per game.

On Saturday, when No. 25 Alabama took LSU to overtime but still fell to its rivals by an 80-77 final, Rojas only had four points, one steal and one rebound in 17 minutes played, while committing four fouls. But Oats still used Rojas as an example to the rest of his team for his leadership, and he explained that it’s part of the reason he saw the floor late in Saturday’s game.

“If you’re going to get stops late in a big game, you’ve got to have some guys that are willing to talk and make tough plays. I mean, he’s proven that he’s willing to take charges. It’s not true of everybody on our team,” Oats said of Rojas. “I thought he took one there late, and he had a tough call when he took one there. He makes tough plays. They (LSU) were small, and (Rojas) is a switchable five.”

Nate Oats criticizes team for turnovers, highlights improvements from last game

Nate Oats and the No. 25 Alabama Crimson Tide came so close to silencing their rivals at LSU on Saturday, ultimately coming from behind to force overtime, but the Crimson Tide were unable to capitalize in the game’s waning minutes, falling by an 80-77 final score.

In an otherwise low-scoring game, Oats’ Alabama team was paced by three double-digit scorers, as the Crimson Tide were unable to get double-digit efforts from anyone else despite an extra period of play. Keon Ellis scored a team-high 19 points on 4-of-10 from the field, along with nine rebounds, two steals and an assist, but he later fouled out of the game; additionally, Jahvon Quinerly had 16 points on 5-of-13 from the field, coupled with three rebounds and an assist. Lastly, JD Davison turned in 12 points of his own, thanks to a 4-of-9 shooting performance, and he grabbed five boards, along with three steals.

Ultimately, Alabama just seemed unable to get out of its own way. Despite out-rebounding the LSU Tigers, 42-33, Oats acknowledged that his team was sloppy in other facets of the game. Alabama had 21 turnovers as a team, far more than LSU’s 13, and the Tigers capitalized on those mistakes. Alabama was also far less efficient from the field, shooting 37.7 from the field and 27.5 from three-point range, compared to LSU’s 45.9 percent from the field and 35.0 percent from three-point range.

“It was a tough loss. I thought our plays a lot harder than they did Wednesday night,” Oats said, citing Alabama’s last 16-point loss at home against Texas A&M. “Our turnovers are a major issue right now. The last three games or four games, we’ve allowed 94 points off turnovers, almost 25 points per game off turnovers. So, if you look at the way the game went — if we take care of the ball (that’s a different game). Obviously, this (LSU) is a good team. They play hard on D to force turnovers, but they had 16 steals, which turns into points off turnovers. So, every little detail matters in these big games, especially these road games. Executing stuff out of timeouts, turnovers — it all comes back to bite you when you wish you had a couple possessions back there at the end of the game, when it’s essentially a one-point game and we had to foul.”

Despite the losing effort — and despite the turnovers that came in bunches — Oats acknowledged that Alabama played much better on Saturday than it did earlier in the week. In that loss, Alabama looked sloppy, allowing Texas A&M to score 56.9 percent of its shots from the field.

“There was a lot of stuff we did well,” Oats continued. “We out-rebounded them by nine. Our guys played hard on the glass. I thought our defense was morbidly improved since the second half of the A&M game. … It’s tough. We’ve got to regroup, and we’ve got to figure out who we’re going to play … We’ve got to get ourselves ready to play in the SEC Tournament.”

Alabama figures to slip out of the AP Top 25 with its two losses this week, but the Crimson Tide still have plenty to play for, especially as a projected NCAA Tournament team. Oats’ Crimson Tide finished the regular season with a 19-12 overall record, along with a 9-9 record in SEC play.