Nate Oats explains benching starters to start second half vs. South Carolina

Forget having a big lead. If you’re not playing up to par, you’re going to sit the bench for coach Nate Oats and his Alabama squad.

It’s just that simple.

Alabama players found that out the hard way on Wednesday night in an 88-68 win over South Carolina. The second half started, but players seemed to mentally still be in the locker room.

“I think they started on a 9-6 run, we’re giving up layups in transition,” Nate Oats said. “We just didn’t look like we were ready to start the second half. I’d seen that too often and I’d had enough of it.”

To the bench each of the starters went. No playing around. No second chances.

A couple of quick trips to the rim for South Carolina was all she wrote for the starters temporarily, as Oats benched his bunch following a turnover by guard Mark Sears and a foul by Jarin Stevenson.

“Yeah that had definitely been building. We’ve had awful starts to the second half, particularly when we’ve had a lead,” Nate Oats said. “It’s like they get comfortable. We’re just going to play around. No, no, that’s not how we do things around here. We’re playing every possession no matter what the score is. We’re trying to get stops.”

One of the plays in transition particularly set off Oats. After Aden Holloway made a tough runner from the left side of the paint, Alabama gave up a quick dunk in transition. Oats called timeout and immediately began ripping into freshman Derrion Reid.

“We subbed and that wasn’t quite good enough,” Nate Oats said. “The next group gave up a transition bucket, and then I called the timeout and we got straightened out after that.”

Will that be enough for the Alabama starters to get the message? We shall see. The Crimson Tide and Nate Oats will be back in action on Saturday with a road trip to No. 10 Texas A&M.