Nate Oats explains growing role of freshman Jusaun Holt

After two straight losses against Auburn and Kentucky, Alabama bounced back with a 97-83 win over Ole Miss on Wednesday. Behind a career-high performance from Jaden Shackelford and efficient night by freshman JD Davison, Nate Oats could not let the play of breakout forward Jusaun Holt go unnoticed.

During his postgame press conference, Nate Oats acknowledged the work of Jusaun Holt, a freshman who has worked his way into the lineup as the coaching staff looks to shake things up and find consistency late in the season.

“He gave us some quality minutes,” Oats said, via AL.com’s Mike Rodak. “I thought he played well on defense. He flew around. We were plus-22 in the 26 minutes he played in the game. He’s been working hard in practice and almost led us in rebounding with six rebounds. I was happy with his play.”

Holt finished Wednesday’s game with just two points but added six rebounds and three assists. More importantly, as Oats points out, the team found success with him on the floor. A plus-22 in a 14-point win means the Crimson Tide were actually outscored by eight points in the 14 minutes he did not play.

Nate Oats makes jokes

After struggling to shoot the ball over the past several games, Nate Oats referenced the “law of averages” as a key to the team’s turnaround on Wednesday.

In addition to the stat game, Nate Oats made a joke about Ole Miss’ SJB Pavilion and how he hopes Alabama’s new arena helps the team.

“Maybe we can get an arena that looks like something similar to this and shoot the ball like this,” Oats said, via AL.com’s Mike Rodak.

After a tough shooting stretch, Alabama finished Wednesday’s game against Ole Miss shooting 60 percent from the field and went 14-for-22 from the 3-point line.

The university board of trustees approved a proposal to build a new basketball and gymnastics arena on Friday. Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne proposed a new arena on Thursday and confirmed Crimson Tide officials visited five different arenas — Ole Miss’ SBJ Pavilion, Virginia’s John Paul Jones Arena, Illinois‘ State Farm Center, James Madison’s Atlantic Union Bank Center and DePaul’s Wintrust Arena — to get an idea of what they want to do with the new facility.

“We went and studied some other arenas,” Byrne also said, via the Tuscaloosa News’ Nick Kelly. “We would recommend potentially constructing a new arena.”