Nate Oats praises offensive rebounding in Alabama's first half vs. Mississippi State

The forecast called for bricks from both teams to start the Mississippi State vs. Alabama quarterfinal game in the SEC Tournament. However, after a poor start from the field, the Crimson Tide caught fire down the stretch of the first half to wind up scoring 41 points while making eight threes to go up 20 on State.

At the half, head coach Nate Oats said he still thought Alabama could have hit more shots, but was pleased with the team’s offensive rebounding in the latter portion of the half.

“Our guys kept playing and shots weren’t dropping, offense was struggling, we got to the offensive boards,” said Oats, singling out Nimari Burnett in that department. “You know, Nimari came in and right away got an offensive board and then he hits a three after it. Threes will eventually fall. We got to find ways to win even when the threes aren’t dropping.”

Going into the game, Alabama’s goal was to play a deep rotation to keep guys rested and run Mississippi State up and down the floor, since the Tide hadn’t played in six days while MSU played in an overtime game less than 24 hours ago.

“Our pace needs to be good. I mean, they played an overtime game (yesterday), we’re fresh, trying to keep our guys fresh, keep the pace, keep the ball moving up and down the floor,” added Oats. “We did a good job with that. Just need the shots to start to drop.”

The other consequential coaching move from Nate Oats in the first half was his decision to start veteran guard Jahvon Quinerly over freshman Jaden Bradley, who had started all 18 conference games in the regular season.

“Yeah I thought we were a little more aggressive. I mean, (Quinerly) hit the three, that’s another shooter,” said Oats of his decision to flip the two. “Just felt like we were a little stagnant, the floor didn’t get spaced as much, and I thought Jaden was better off when we play Brandon (Miller) at the four and (Noah) Clowney at the five and the floor can get spaced a little more. I thought Jaden was good in his minutes too.”

The move clearly worked for both as Quinerly hit an early three to get into rhythm while Oats also noted that Bradley still played well.