Nate Oats explains mindset when splitting minutes on deep roster

Nate Oats has gushed about his roster leading into the season, talking about the depth Alabama has at its disposal. Positions will be two, maybe even three players deep for the 2024-2025 season. A mix of player retention, high school recruiting, and work in the NCAA transfer portal have the Crimson Tide in a great spot.

With a lot of quality players comes questions about how the minutes will be distributed. Oats explained his mindset when speaking at SEC Media Days, saying decisions will be made on more than just putting up statistics. Alabama uses analytics almost more than anybody in college basketball and prides itself on a blue-collar style of play.

Excelling in those scenarios is how Alabama players will get on the floor.

“One is we keep telling them it’s not about how many points and this and that,” Oats said. “It’s are we better with you on the floor? Is our offensive efficiency better with you on the floor than when you’re not? Is our defensive efficiency better with you on the floor? So guys don’t necessarily have to average a high number of points for our offense to be better on the floor. Are you a great screener? Do you play hard? Do you go to the O-boards? Do you do this? We’re going to try to reward effort, reward winning plays.”

Somebody like Mark Sears or Grant Nelson is going to be getting big minutes, no matter the scenario. Both of those were huge components of Alabama making a run to the Final Four last year. Coming back for another season instead of testing the NBA waters is why the AP poll has them ranked No. 2 in the preseason.

At some point, a really solid player is going to be playing fewer minutes. It might be frustrating for some but Oats is calling for his guys to be ready whenever their number is called and ready to play at a high level on the court.

“There’s going to have to be some sacrifices made to win championships,” Oats said. “The depth, the potential for us to be a very deep team is there. We’ve got talent. In order to build the depth, you have to get guys some playing time. There’s some guys that last year were big parts of what we’re doing that are going to have to take fewer minutes this year in order to build our depth.

“It’s more about what you do in your minutes than it is about how many minutes you play. It’s more about what you do in the shots that you get than the actual shot attempts you actually take.”