Nate Oats explains Alabama's defensive gameplan to limit Tennessee's Dalton Knecht

Going into the game against Tennessee, Alabama head coach Nate Oats wanted the Crimson Tide to lock in and focus on stopping Dalton Knecht when they were on the defensive end. Despite that, the Volunteers were still able to put up 81 points and beat the Crimson Tide.

After the game, Oats explained the gameplan on Knecht and shared that he’ll need to check the film to see if it worked during the game.

“We wanted him thinking about whether we were gonna double him or not double,” Nate Oats said. “I’ll have to go back and look to see if it worked.”

Nate Oats even compared Dalton Knecht to several very talented NBA players who are able to take over the game at a given time.

“Look, you saw what he was doing to some of the teams in the league like it was just taking games over. We watch a lot of NBA here and you see what teams to do guys like Steph Curry, Luka [Doncic], Dame Lillard. When they get going, they’re almost unguardable 1-on-1, and we felt like that’s the way he – he had 25 points in the last 10 minutes of that Auburn game. Just took the thing over after Auburn was up.”

Dalton Knecht finished the game with 13 points, five rebounds, and an assist in 28 minutes of action. All of those numbers are down from his season averages, meaning he either had a bad game or Alabama was able to find a way to slow him down.

“So we didn’t want him getting in a groove, getting comfortable doing that to us, so we thought maybe putting a little question in his mind. It helped getting him in foul trouble, for sure. I don’t know if the traps helped. The foul trouble helped. A combination of everything,” Oats said.

“He still ended up with 13 points and he just missed some shots that we didn’t do a great job. He just missed some shots, too. But he’s really good. If we’re fortunate enough to play these guys again in the SEC Tournament, we’ll have to look and see if what we thought with the possessions where we did trap him.”

Rick Barnes praises Vols after gritty win on quiet night for Dalton Knecht

Despite Dalton Knecht getting bogged down by the Alabama defense, Tennessee won, earning praise from their head coach, Rick Barnes.

“We’ve got a lot of these guys that have been with us for a long time and they’ve been in games like this. And obviously, we’ve got the utmost respect for Nate and his staff and what he’s done in his program in his time here. It was going to be a difficult game if we could stay in it for as long as we could, knowing how explosive they can be,” Barnes said.

“But Jahmai Mashack, Santi [Vescovi], Josiah-[Jordan] James, guys that have been around for a long time, they made a lot of plays, especially Josiah getting on the glass. ‘Z’ [Zakai Zeigler] what he does.”