Nate Oats explains emphasis on playing fast offensively

With Nate Oats in charge of the program, Alabama likes to play extremely efficient offense but at a breakneck pace — a philosophy which Oats explained after the Crimson Tide’s 109-92 win over LSU this past weekend.

Alabama has been cooking with gas on offense all season long and especially once SEC play began, and they’ve done so in typical Oats fashion shooting the sixth-most threes while playing at a top-20 tempo for the fourth straight season. When asked if playing that fast actually makes a difference, Oats assured that yes, it does.

“It does matter. We want to play fast,” he answered. “Ever since I was a high school coach, my philosophy has kind of gone back to we’re going to get in the gym and player development has been our biggest thing on offense. So we’re gonna spend a lot of time in the gym making players into really good players. And we want to open the floor up and let them make plays. They’re a lot more motivated to get in the gym to work on their game if you let them actually play their game. The best way to do that is to play fast, and as we’ve been doing it.”

Like he sees with teams at the next level, Nate Oats says playing fast can allow the offense to create mismatches and get the defense out of its set position.

“But the game is starting to evolve. The NBA is playing way faster. I think with the analytics and the floor being spread, I think if you can create an advantage in the first six seconds of the clock and just continue to keep the advantage through the whole opposition, I feel like we can get the shots we want,” he added.

“So yeah, we’re trying to attack early. We’re not doing it necessarily to play fast. I tell the guys all the time, we’re gonna be one of the fastest teams in the country, not just to play fast, because our goal is to be the most efficient.”

According to Oats, the data shows just that.

“This is the first year we’ve been able to be – and I don’t know where we’ll end up after today – but we’ve been back and forth with Purdue between one and two in most efficient offense in the country.”

Per KenPom, Alabama possesses the No. 1 offense in the country to date with the Boilermakers just behind them.

“So for playing open, modern style basketball — that’s why we play fast, to be most efficient, but we definitely are trying to push the ball up the floor and attack them before they ever get set up,” says Nate Oats.