Nate Oats discusses importance of limiting turnovers

During Alabama’s convincing victory over Ole Miss this week, the Crimson Tide only committed seven turnovers. That success will be a key part of the team’s success going forward, according to coach Nate Oats.

Oats talked about the need to limit turnovers during games. He said it’s about being smart with the basketball and making sure the players trust each other.

That’s how it went against Ole Miss — a game in which the Rebels scored just six points off of Alabama turnovers.

“Going through video of our turning it over, trying to eliminate the careless ones,” Oats said. “When we’re driving into tight gaps, try to eliminate the travels, stepping out of bounds, the moving screens. We had been turning it over all sorts of different ways, I thought, for the most part — and some of the turnovers they called tonight were travels. We’ve still got to do a better job with that. We didn’t have very many live-ball turnovers at all. At least, if we did turn it over, they weren’t scoring off turnovers. … Just individual guys showing different things, keeping it simple.

“Sometimes, we’re doing a little bit too much, trying to do a little bit too much in traffic. Just keep it simple. If your teammate’s open, throw him the ball. They don’t have to drive it into traffic when you’ve got a teammate open. We don’t try to overcomplicate the stuff with the turnovers, but we need some guys to simplify and make simple plays.”

Nate Oats shares key area where Alabama must improve before March

With how many big-time games Alabama has played this season, you could easily forget it’s only January. Plenty of time separates the Crimson Tide from now to the NCAA Tournament, even with a solid 12-2 start under head coach Nate Oats. Ole Miss was the latest win, with the Crimson Tide easily winning at Coleman Coliseum.

Oats still wants to see improvements out of Alabama before March. He thinks there can be moments where the Crimson Tide fall asleep, not playing a full game quite yet. While it’s easy to stay engaged offensively in Oats’ system, defensively is where a full game of attention is needed.

“Playing a full 40 minutes,” Oats said. “We take breaks. We get a lead and relax a little bit. That can cost you. I have seen plenty of basketball games where teams up 20 lose a game. We can’t take our foot off the gas on the defensive end.”