Nate Oats shares halftime message, vibe that sparked the comeback win vs. Mississippi State

Nate Oats’ team was in a spot they haven’t often found themselves in at halftime of Wednesday night’s win over Mississippi State. No. 2 Alabama was being outplayed on their home floor and headed to the locker room down seven. However, Oats said nothing spectacular took place at halftime to rally his team’s comeback.

Oats described the vibe of the Tide’s locker room and the message the coaching staff sent during his postgame press conference. He said all he and his staff did for their team was point out their ‘screw-ups’ and tell them, plain and simple, that they weren’t playing hard enough. He went on to say it didn’t take much animation to engage them as, through their leadership, they got themselves where they needed to be to start the second half.

“We just pointed out all of the defensive screw-ups they had. The numbers were down in the blue-collar stats, down on the glass,” said Oats. “There was nothing profound. We just said we’ve got to play harder. We told them at the beginning and told them coming in that this was a hard-playing team. If you don’t play hard, they’re a team that can beat you.”

“Usually the staff goes and meets for three or four minutes and then comes in. But we went right in and just started checking off everything that was wrong. There was so much wrong that we went with the whole list,” Oats said. “We were definitely a little animated with some of the screw-ups and why they did it. But it wasn’t necessarily a butt-chewing. I think this team is a pretty mature group. They knew they weren’t playing as hard or as well as they needed to…There was plenty of stuff to fix. We went through it. And then we told them to go out and get a good warm up because we had to be ready to go.”

After being down as much as 11 in the first half, the Tide was able to take a lead with just under nine and a half minutes to go. They still fought back and forth with the Bulldogs down the stretch. After taking an eight-point lead late, though, they were able to give themselves just enough cushion to win 66-63. Overall, Alabama won the second half 37-27 through improved play on both ends over the final two minutes.

“I thought our guys did play harder in the second half. But there was no real major adjustments, to be honest with you” Oats said.

There’s honestly nothing wrong with the Tide facing some adversity. Their last eight opponents hadn’t truly come close to them. However, although they avoided their third loss, Oats reiterated that it didn’t take a new game plan or some magic to get the win. They just made it very plain to their players and, in the end, they responded how a great team does in those moments.