Nate Oats praises veteran leadership of Noah Gurley, Jahvon Quinerly

Nate Oats had nothing but praise for the play and leadership of veteran Alabama players Noah Gurley and Jahvon Quinerly.

Speaking with the media after the Crimson Tide took care of business against Vanderbilt, Oats explained how important both Gurley and Quinerly are to the Alabama operation, and why it’s immensely valuable to be able to call their numbers off the bench.

“I think he’s a veteran with a lot of experience. I think, you know, he’s a leader for us,” started Oats. “You know, it’s nice to be able to bring some of those experienced guys off the bench. [Jahvon] Quinerly’s played really well for us off the bench. Between Gurley, Quinerly, Dom Welch. Those guys are all in their fifth year of college. Different ones have stepped up. Dom obviously still needs to get in his groove after the injury, but Noah’s played well for us.

“He rebounds well. Been better on defense. The free throws. Hit the big three there when we needed it late too. Happy with Noah’s effort.”

Moreover, Gurley is averaging 6.2 points and 3.9 rebounds per game, while Quinerly adds 6.8 points and 3.3 rebounds per game to the stat sheet. There contributions are greater than their scoring though, and the Crimson Tide’s deep bench has helped them become one of the top teams in the entire country.

Moving forward, Nate Oats will continue to rely on them both, and Alabama will have a good shot at winning as long as they’re on the court.

Nate Oats apologizes for Alabama scoring on final possession of win vs. Vanderbilt

Meanwhile, Alabama provided some fireworks in the final seconds of Tuesday’s win against Alabama, with Noah Gurley throwing down a dunk. Just five seconds remained in a 10-point game as an exclamation mark was added against Vanderbilt to extend the lead. But it’s not something head coach Nate Oats exactly wanted.

Oats began his postgame press conference by apologizing to the opposing bench, saying nothing intentional was at play. He did not realize Jerry Stackhouse had told his team to stop fouling. Otherwise, Alabama would have just run out the clock and been satisfied with what they were leaving with in Nashville.

“Apology to Vanderbilt,” Oats said. “I told our guys ‘go play’ in the last 20 seconds. I didn’t realize Vanderbilt told them not to foul but wasn’t something to rub in on them at all. I got all the respect in the world for Coach Stackhouse and the job that they do. So, just want to publically apologize for having our guys go score the last bucket when they kind of conceded the game at that point.”

Alabama has played tough games against Vanderbilt on the road since Oats took over. He and Stackhouse have competed in SEC play and during the SEC Tournament. There seems to be nothing but respective between the two competitors.

“It’s not something that was intentionally done to try to rub anything in,” Oats said. “I think those guys play really hard, I got a ton of respect for them… That wasn’t the intention there.”

On3’s Griffin McVeigh contributed to this article.