Nate Oats explains how Alabama limited travel ahead of Sweet 16
The Crimson Tide is taking over the West Coast. Alabama’s first two games in the NCAA Tournament were both in Spokane, Washington. The Crimson Tide’s Sweet Sixteen showdown against North Carolina is set to tip-off in Los Angeles, California.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats didn’t bother to take his team home while they waited for their next matchup. During an appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show,” Oats revealed his reasoning behind keeping his team put.
“We just decided that we were gonna stay out West,” Oats said. “We got done playing Sunday night. Then, Monday afternoon we took a flight straight from Spokane to LA. Got in here last night. We actually took the players to a Clippers game.
“We kind of took an off-day. We didn’t do anything basketball-wise yesterday. Now, today we’re gonna get back at it. Show video, just got out of practice — ran a little practice at USC’s gym. I didn’t want to fly all the way back to Alabama and be there for like one day then turn around and come back here, so we stayed out here.”
Whatever Oats is doing, its working. Alabama has looked excellent in its first two games in the NCAA Tournament, winning both showings by double digits. Most recently, the Crimson Tide downed No. 11 seed Grand Canyon 72-61 for the second-straight season.
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In the win, Alabama squeezed 14 turnovers out of Grand Canyon, translating to 21 points. Alabama standout Mark Sears scored the bulk of those points, tallying a game-high 26 points, 12 rebounds and six assists while shooting 5-11 from beyond the arc.
It’s a complete turnaround for the Crimson Tide, which lost three of their final four regular-season games and lost in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. Finebaum has been blown away by Oats’ coaching job in the Big Dance.
“I think they’ve already exceeded expectations this year because of all the changes that you guys talk about every morning, the coaches, the players. This has been an extraordinary coaching job by Nate Oats and I think if they get past North Carolina, fantastic,” Finebaum said. “If they don’t it’s still been an amazing year with another great recruiting class coming in.”
With a couple more days to recover, Alabama will look to take advantage of its decision to remain on the West Coast. The Crimson Tide will square off against No. 1 seed North Carolina at 9:40 p.m. ET on Thursday. The game will be broadcast on CBS.