Nate Oats rips Alabama defense in first half vs. Florida: 'We've been a trainwreck'

Through the first 12 minutes of Saturday’s SEC tournament semifinal game, Alabama vs. Florida had the makings of a shootout. However, Nate Oats didn’t like what he saw from the Crimson Tide defense amid a 35-35 ballgame with eight minutes to go until halftime.

Both teams were shooting better than 50% from the field in the first half, and Walter Clayton Jr. started off red-hot from three-point territory. He made four of his first seven shots from downtown to help lead the Florida offense.

Between Clayton’s success and Florida’s six early offensive rebounds, Oats wanted to see more effort from his defense. While the offense looked strong to start, he called on the defense to kick it into gear.

“Not good enough,” Oats said when asked by ESPN’s Jess Sims about rating Alabama’s performance. “We’ve given up way too many o-boards and given up threes to shooters. Offensively, we look a lot better. Defensively, we’ve been a trainwreck, in my opinion. We can’t keep giving up threes to these shooters and the offensive rebounds we’re giving up in there.”

Florida took a 47-45 lead into halftime as the two teams remained red-hot from the field. The Gators shot 47.4% from the field through the first 20 minutes while the Crimson Tide made 48.6% of its shots in the first half.

Heading into the matchup, though, Nate Oats mentioned the importance of rebounding. Alabama got out-rebounded 22-20 in the first half, including 8-5 on the offensive glass. He knew that would be a key to the game as the Crimson Tide looked to get revenge for the late-season loss to Florida.

“I mean, we’re going to need Cliff [Omoruyi], Grant [Nelson], [Mouhamed] Dioubate, Jarin Stevenson,” Oats said after Friday’s win over Kentucky. “Our front court has to be a lot better than they were last game. Also our back court, to be honest with you. We just weren’t very good.

“There were a few positive things we did get ’em. Second half we kind of let it get to us. I thought their physicality, we’re going to have to really lock into being significantly better against them. They’re one of the better teams in the country. They’re fighting for a 1 seed like we are. This will be a big game for both the SEC Championship and a 1 seed.”