Nate Oats excited for Alabama matchup against Gonzaga

No. 4 Alabama gets a big time regular season matchup against No. 15 Gonzaga and head coach Nate Oats is not overlooking the Bulldogs. Despite the Crimson Tide being ranked about Gonzaga, Oats knows the talent Mark Few’s squad has year-to-year.

“Big game obviously, Gonzaga is Gonzaga, one of the best programs in the country,” Oats said. “Great to be able to get them to come to Birmingham and play us. You know we’d like to get quality opponents for that game in Birmingham,  I think this is as a quality opponent that we’re going to find. Obviously we went up there last year, played a pretty good game so they’re going to come down here. We’re going to play a good game. 

“I think they’re one of the two teams in the country to play five quad-one games, so they played really strong teams. They’ve had a great schedule. We’ve had a tough schedule, they probably even had a tougher schedule, so we were gonna have to play well.”

Alabama is 9-1 on the season, coming off a 91-88 win over Memphis going into the high profile matchup. The Crimson Tide edged Gonzaga 91-82 in the Battle in Seattle last season.

“Last year’s game we played pretty well there,” Oats said. “So you know, we’re gonna have to obviously do a great job on Drew Timme. It’s not gonna be a one man deal, you know? Charles Bediako did a fairly good job at times last year on him. But you know, we did struggle to guard him at times too … 

“But they got three really good shooters, they got a good system. Coach Mark Few does a great job. So it’s gonna be a good test for us and our guys are gonna have to be ready to go.”

Alabama got good scoring performances out of Brandon Miller and Mark Sears in the win over Memphis. Miller finished with 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Meanwhile, Sears had 18 points and one rebound.

Two other players finished in double figures: Noah Clowney (11 points) and Jaden Bradley (10 points).

Alabama and Gonzaga tip off Saturday at 1:00 p.m. ET.