Nate Oats: Jalon Moore ‘scores off garbage points better than anybody in the league’

The Alabama Crimson Tide earned a massive win on Saturday, knocking off a previously unbeaten Oklahoma Sooners team. It was a win that head coach Nate Oats ended up contributing to his team’s defensive efforts, even if the Sooners did have garbage time success.

Oats explained that one of the keys to the game was Alabama’s ability to force bad and contested shots, which in turn made Oklahoma struggle offensively in a way they hadn’t previously.

“I thought it was most evident on the offensive end of the glass,” Nate Oats said. “I did think we forced them into some tough shots, maybe challenging threes with our length. But because they were a team that had been shooting 37 percent from three, and they only shot 26 tonight, maybe our length bothered them and from the 3-point line. They shot it pretty well from the field, but man, we gave up some just dumb, like just wide-open layups, whether it’s transition, where we kind of gambled and went for a loose ball we didn’t get off a turnover or just our pick-and-roll coverage wasn’t great at times.”

In the first half, Alabama held Oklahoma to just 29 points. When paired with the Crimson Tides’ strong offensive effort, it made much of the second-half garbage time. That’s where the Sooners closed the gap a little, especially thanks to the play of Jalon Moore, who Nate Oats made sure to praise for his ability in those situations.

Moore finished the game with 20 points, which led Oklahoma, and was second among all players in scoring. His seven rebounds were also a team-high in the comeback effort.

“[Sam] Godwin ended up getting some easy plays off that and Moore, I mean, Moore is the best garbage points – and this is no disrespect to him – but he scores off garbage points better than anybody maybe in the league right now,” Oats said. “So they were able to get some of that and drive their field goal percentage up. But I do think our length bothered them shooting some pullups, shooting some threes and then on the offensive glass.”

Jalon Moore came to Oklahoma as a transfer from Georgia Tech ahead of the 2023-24 season. Since then, he’s become a key piece of the Sooners’ lineup and is averaging 17.9 points, 6.0 rebounds, and 0.5 assists per game regardless of if it is garbage time or not.

Oklahoma and Jalon Moore will look to bounce back on Wednesday with another tough game against Texas A&M. Meanwhile, Nate Oats and Alabama are back in action on Wednesday against South Carolina.