Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 102-97 win at Kentucky

No. 4 Alabama defeated No. 8 Kentucky, 102-97, on Saturday afternoon in Lexington. After the Crimson Tide moved to 15-3 (4-1 SEC) on the 2024-25 season, Alabama head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters at Rupp Arena. Below is everything Oats said after the road win.

Oats’ opening statement…

“Couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys after the poor showing on Tuesday. They kind of bounced back and played the way we did here today. This a really good team we beat. They’re a high-powered offensive team. We gave up too many threes there late, but up until we were up there nine, eight or nine and there at the end of the game, I thought we’d done a pretty good job outside of the one stretch we’d given up the five in the first half. 

“Looking at some of their better shooters, Brea I think is averaging six attempts on the year. He only got three up. Now, he made two of them. He doesn’t miss much. But I thought we did a pretty good job getting him off the line I mean, this is still a team that ended up with seven guys in double figures. Our defense certainly didn’t win the game for us, but our offense showed up a lot better than it did against Ole Miss Tuesday. And I thought our defense was pretty good for large stretches against a pretty good offensive team.

“And Grant Nelson came out ready to go. He had 12 of our first 20, I think, at the beginning of the game. He goes 3-of-7 at the free-throw line Tuesday night, and he got in the gym and worked. We were able to make small corrections to his shot, get him some confidence by putting a bunch of work in. I think the last two days he finished his individual workouts going 90-of-100 two days ago, 91-of-100 yesterday. Got some confidence, steps up and goes 9-of-10. He shoots 90 percent in practice and goes 90 percent in the game when we needed him. He had 25 and 11. I thought he was huge.

“Sears made timely plays like he always does, steps up to the free-throw line, makes big free throws. For him to play almost 38 minutes, I thought his defensive effort was pretty good for most of the game, too. Labaron has been struggling shooting it. I think he was maybe 26 percent from three coming into this game. He’s been in the gym a ton. 

“I told our guys after the loss Tuesday, like we didn’t deserve to win with our preparation going in the game and our effort in the game. We need to deserve to win from now on, and it better start with guys putting so much time and effort in that they’re just not going to surrender. So Labaron spent a lot of time in the gym, and he goes 3-of-5 from three, and it’s not rocket science. You spend time in the gym and you make shots. You spend time in gym, you make your free throws. Mo Dioubate got, I mean, somehow in less than 15 minutes, he was plus-21. Eight points, eight rebounds in less than 15 minutes is pretty impressive. It’d be nice if we could keep him out of trouble so we could keep in a little bit more.

“You kind of go down the list. I thought we had a lot of guys – Youngblood, a little bit of a coming out party in the second half. He’s finally starting to look like I think we thought he was going to look. I mean, it’s not easy having surgery in the summer, being out six months, trying to come back and you’re not 100 percent. But he looked pretty good for large parts of that second half today. 

“So it’s great playing here at Rupp. The crowd’s great. I love the environment. I love the basketball people here. You guys are so in the basketball I think Coach Pope’s done a really good job kind of rejuvenating everybody. This is their first home loss, so they’ve been playing great at home. We’ve been able now to beat three top-10 teams on the road. 

“It’d be nice if we had taken care of business Tuesday, but we didn’t. And you know what? Sometimes you need a loss to learn some lessons. I’ve tried to study Coach Saban and football, and you go look at most of his championship teams. They took a loss early, got them focused, locked in. And I think that lost against Ole Miss got us refocused. This was a completely different team than the one that played Ole Miss. So ff we learned the lessons we needed to in that loss Tuesday and we don’t forget them for the remainder of the year, it may have been the best thing to happen to us. We just got to make sure this is not a one-game deal. We got to continue to do the things we’ve done since Tuesday night.”

Oats on getting Kentucky off the line…

“How many did they hit late in the last two or three minutes? Does anybody know? Oh, you got your hand up. I thought you had a good answer for me, CJ. At least three… I thought they made more. We screwed up and didn’t get the one switched and gave up a three-point play, too. I forgot that. But to answer your question, to have the attempts a little lower until the end, when we definitely screwed some stuff up, I thought we kind of play our big in a drop, as they do. Our defense isn’t a ton different than theirs on some stuff. I think we’ve got different personnel, obviously. We don’t always drop our four like they have been. Now, our guard’s job in the pick and roll is to get them off the line. If you get them off the line… 

“I thought Butler was doing a really good job kind of getting us in that hostage dribble where we couldn’t get back in front and our bigs, and he’s getting in there. He’s got a great shot fake game and he got us up in the air. He got some dump-offs. Butler’s caused us problems before. Shoot, when he was at San Diego State, when we had the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament a couple years ago, they beat us in the Sweet 16. He’s a tough kid. I love the way he plays. And he caused some problems. Shoot, he had eight assists on one turnover and 17 points, four rebounds. I mean, he had himself a game. I thought he caused a little bit of problems with our pick-and-roll defense. We were trying to make some adjustments on the fly. That’s something we’re gonna have to probably address coming out of this game. 

“But again, we tried to top lock when they were setting off-ball stuff. The on-ball, they had to run them off, top lock the off-ball, they get into their five-out delay action. We wanted our bigs pressuring a little bit more to try to push some of that stuff out so they’re not so comfortable. Just hand off right on top of the 3-point line. I thought we were able to push them off on some, not on all, but a little bit farther out and kind of get under some of those handoffs, as well. But they do a good job on offense. Shoot, we just gave up 97. Let’s not act like we had our defense figured out tonight. We gave up 97 points.”

Oats on what is it about this team that allows you to play so well on the road…

“I think some of the guys’ mentality. We’ve got tough kids. We kind of start with Dioubate. He wasn’t phased by any of this stuff. A tough, New York City kid. Part of me almost thinks some of these guys like going on the road, seeing – the place didn’t empty till about 10 seconds to go, so it’s not like it emptied super early. Some guys, like real competitors sometimes like going in a little bit more hostile environment and coming out with big win that nobody expected, I mean, after the way we be played Tuesday, I don’t think anybody expected us to play this well. But our guys did. 

“I told them that after the game Tuesday, after Ole Miss, I told them that when we met Thursday, ‘We are going in there and we are getting a win by any means necessary. If you’re not planning on getting a win, just pack your bag because you ain’t coming back on that plane.’ So we came in, I think, with the right mindset, and guys made sure we got to win whatever it took. We screwed up some defensive assignments, keep playing, make some tough shots on offense, get to the free-throw line, get some O boards. Kentucky was, I mean, they had 13 O boards. They actually out-scored us on second-chance points. I thought they had some toughness to them that in some games I hadn’t seen, but it’s there when they needed it. We were just a little bit tougher, got a few more threes off, made a few more. But they’re a good team. They’re gonna win a lot of games this year.”

Oats on how well Alabama players saw the game offensively…

“I kind of stole the term ‘seal’ from Joe Mazzulla. I’ve spent some time up in Boston a few times, and they attack seals, if you will. I love the point that he made. Like sharks, killer whales, killer whales basically eat seals for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and they’re just kind of sitting there, sitting ducks. But they always attack in a school of killer whales. So we’re going to try to attack mismatches still with five guys. But I did think we had a pretty good awareness of who the mismatches were, went at them. The out-of-bounds play we kept scoring on kind of going at some of their seals, if you will, was just invented on the fly, and we now need to give it a name.

“But we just kind of kept giving it to our four men. It kind of helped the Grant was going and Dioubate is going downhill, and get it to them on the elbow, which other elbow matches their strong hand, put the seal in the action and kind of go at them. And we were able to generate some fouls, some easy buckets kind of coming downhill on that. I thought we did a good job recognizing, like you said, mismatches, seals, if you will, kind of going at them that. They’re trying to get their matchups, and we’re just moving the guys around to where we needed them to get. 

“I think they switched it, had it on the inbounder. We quick-switched the inbounder and put them in the action. Coach Pope knows what he’s doing. He also knew what he’s dealing with, and we had a little bit of a chess match going out there at times. I thought our guys did a pretty good job making reads. We were way more aggressive in ball screens kind of coming downhill to attack some of those weaker defenders that they have.”

Oats on what he liked from some of the 3-guard lineups down the stretch…

“We got more shooting out there, especially with the way Youngblood’s shooting it. He’s 2-of-3. Those two threes he hit were huge. Hollyoway’s been playing great. I feel bad for him because he did have it going, too, there, and then he got in foul trouble. We took him out and then these other guys had it going well, and I just never found a time to get him back in. He’s been playing great. I think had six games in a row he was in double digits. So hopefully we can get him and going again next game. 

“But we’ve got those four guards that starting to – Labaron went 3-of-5 tonight from three. Sears, obviously, everybody knows what he can do. CY is coming along. Labaron Holloway. If you can keep three of those four out there with matchups that you can put them on, and we were trying to find – we knew when there were certain guys in, we could definitely keep those three guards. Offensively, it’s a better lineup for us to make shots. Now, the offensive boards, Jarin has been pretty good. He’s been aggressive. I thought he was good tonight. Grant, with the way he was playing. 

“But we were in a little bit of foul trouble in the frontcourt, so kind of try to save some of Jarin’s minutes for more of the four spot than the three and playing more three-guard lineups, I think was a little helpful. Grant ended up in foul trouble in the second half. Mo D was in foul trouble in the first half. And with the pace that we play, Cliff’s not a guy – he played 25 minutes. That’s about what he ought to be playing. I thought he was pretty good in his 25 minutes.”

Oats on if Alabama overlooked Kentucky’s bench…

“No. Kentucky’s got a great bench. They had seven guys in double figures. They’ve got six guys averaging double figures. Holloway played a decent amount, Youngblood. Dioubate got in foul trouble in the first half. Some of it is guys get in foul trouble. And you know what, Mark Sears has been in some of these big games before. Grant Nelson had one going early. He came ready to play, obviously. So I’m not gonna sacrifice some of those guys’ minutes just to play guys off the bench. If I think they’re ready to go and they’re playing well, we’ll keep them in the game and keep them going.”

Oats on how he initially felt when Kentucky hired Mark Pope…

“I thought it was a great fit. He played here. He knows what this place is about. From afar, I’d kind of seen some of his teams at BYU play. I think you’re seeing his offensive product. He’s going to be able to get players here. Kentucky has always had that tradition of getting players. When they hired him, it made total sense. I think his introductory – I don’t know if you’d call it a  press conference, the way they rolled him in. It was pretty cool. I think Mark’s a great guy. It seems to me like the state’s embraced him. 

“They obviously lost today, but we’re a good team. This is not going to be a bad loss for them when all is said and done. They’re a very good team. This was their first loss at home since he’s been here. He’s done an unbelievable job. They’re playing a great style of basketball. I thought it made sense. So I’m happy for him. We needed to get this win, and we get them twice this year, so there’s one other time that we’re gonna make sure we need to give them a loss. But I think he’s done a really good job. I think it helps the SEC to have Kentucky good. It’s been traditionally good most years, and he’s got them very good. They’re eighth in the country, and they looked like a pretty good team today.”

Oats on if Alabama’s 2023-24 team provided a blueprint for this year’s Kentucky team…

“Listen, I’m sure he’s going to try to get them to be a little better than we were last year because we weren’t very good. I think we weren’t even in the top 100 there to close the year out. I’ll just say this: if your offense is good enough, you can get yourself enough wins. And again, I think they’ve got the personnel to be a pretty good defensive team. I mean, you kind of go down this list, like Williams can protect the rim. Oweh is tough, physical. Butler is one of the best perimeter defenders I’ve seen in college basketball. I think Carr’s tough, smart. They’ve got enough guys here that can really guard that I think they’ll get better. 

“I think they showed it at times tonight. Our offense was clicking tonight, but they had some good stops on us. There just wasn’t much of an answer. The offense looks good. We’re not turning it over. They’re forcing us into some tough shots. We’ve got to get some more O boards. They did a good job on the defensive glass. We had 24 O boards against A&M a week ago. We ended up with 15 today, but it’s not 24. And we had way fewer turnovers, so we had more shots. 

“But I’ll say this: we just kept believing last year all the way to the end. We’re gonna get it fixed. We lost in the SEC Tournament, and then we came back and I tried to give them – I talked to both Frank Martin and Coach Boeheim, who had kind of had teams that maybe struggled at the end of the year and still made a Final Four run on that Sunday, Selection Sunday. We met on Monday. I said, ‘Listen, we’re throwing out the regular season. I don’t care about the last two weeks. Let’s try to be the best defensive team in the country for the next three weeks, and let’s see what we can do with it.’ If you go look at our defensive efficiency for those five NCAA Tournament games we played, it was a lot better than it was during the regular season. 

“Hopefully for us, when we play Kentucky, they wait until March to get the defense figured, at least for the one game at our place. But it is possible to get the defense … because we got ours going late. It’s better late than never, but it’d be nice to have a solid defense for the rest of January, February, March, maybe into April and see what happens.”

Oats on what he liked about Grant Nelson’s mentality…

“I thought he was aggressive. Got downhill, attacked them. He stepped to the free throw line and made free throws, so he wasn’t afraid to attack them. We got him in the pocket a little bit. He was playing great. I thought he had a few too many turnovers in the second half. But even that didn’t make him passive. Even after he had the turnovers, he kind of split the double team, put the ball out in front of him, made a play like a guard makes, got fouled, got the and-one. Man, he’s good. We could use that out of him every game. I didn’t realize it was a career-high. He’s more than capable of it.

“Now, he ends up in foul trouble too much. It happened against tonight with four. With the way him and Dioubate were both playing, we need to keep them out of foul trouble because they were both great at that four spot and they both can kind of flex down and play some five when we need to, too. So both versatile. But yeah, super happy for Grant and his free throws. Those two threes he had early, I mean, they were big, got him going. He missed a few I thought he should have drove. He had the one three he took right in front of our bench in the second half, and I believe it was Andrew Carr closing out on him with four fouls at the time. 

“So we want him to have confidence shooting the three, and I think he’s been working really hard on his shot. It was great to see those two go in. He’s still better getting downhill, attacking at the rim, so let’s keep him doing that. But he had a great game for us.”

“Hey, listen. Seriously, I appreciate what you guys do for basketball. This is great. Not many people are interested in basketball. This is a great place to come play games. I’m a basketball junkie, and this place is as good as any place in the country for basketball junkies. So great job. You’ve got a great team. Mark’s doing a great job. You guys will win a lot of games this year, too. So thank you. Appreciate it.”

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