Nate Oats shares key for Alabama against Mississippi State

Alabama currently holds sole possession of first place in the SEC but will be challenged on Saturday night. For the second time this season, Mississippi State is on the schedule, with this one taking place at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa. Nate Oats saw his team get a good win on the road in mid-January is is hoping for a similar result.

Mississippi State is one of the bigger teams in the league, hoping to get into a bit of a rock fight. Rebounding the ball is key against the Bulldogs, especially for Alabama. Grabbing boards allows quick transition opportunities — something the Tide thrives off of.

Oats believes if his team is successful on the glass, they will be able to run up the court and allow the shooters to heat up. It’s how Alabama took care of business in Starkville and plans on it again on Saturday.

“We’re going to have to be able to get out and run on them a little bit,” Oats said via SEC Network. “They try to go to the boards, that’s what they do. So if you can rebound — we could the first game — you can really run on them.

“It helped that (Latrell) Wrightsell got hot that first game. We’re going to need some guys to make some threes… I think getting out in transition is key to put some points up on these guys.”

Nate Oats hoping to fix turnover problem

According to KenPom, Alabama has the No. 2 offense in the country, sitting just a spot behind Purdue heading into the weekend. Nothing new under Oats, wanting to get high-percentage shots around the rim or kicking it out to effective three-point shooters.

Alabama still turns the ball over at a high rate, sitting near the bottom of the SEC. Oats is attempting to get his players to take better care of the ball, saying a lot of film study has gone into the topic.

“We’ve tried to take a lot of video, look at ’em. We’ve had every guy sit down one-on-one with an assistant and just go through every single turnover he’s had during SEC play. What are you doing individually doing?

“We still have an issue. Last I looked, we’re still last in the league, if you look at just conference-only games, in turnover rate on offense. Which, is not good. Somehow, we’ve got the best offense and the worst turnover rate. So, if we can get a shot up, our offense will really be good.”