Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 103-80 win at Texas

No. 2 Alabama defeated Texas, 103-80, on Tuesday night in Austin, Texas. After the Crimson Tide won its seventh game in a row, Alabama head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters at the Moody Center. Below is everything Oats said following another Tide win on the road.

Oats’ opening statement…

“This was a game that I wish you could shoot it like this all the time. I know we shot almost 60 percent from three, shot 62 percent from the field. We spend a lot of time in the gym, but sometimes you get some open looks, you know them down and it helps the game go the way you want. We had way too many turnovers again. That’s becoming a major issue with us. Gotta give Texas a lot of credit. They got into us. They were physical with us. They forced some turnovers. And I thought they played hard. 

“Jarin, we know can really shoot it, but he hasn’t shot it this well in a game yet this year. But he did make five threes to send us to the Final Four last year when we beat Clemson in the Elite Eight. So he’s stepped up in big games before and had great shooting games. He ends up with a career-high. I think he’s been playing both physical, real aggressive, great defense. He was our matchup to start with on Tre Johnson, who’s leading the league in scoring. And I thought he did a pretty good job, for the most part. So I think he’s been locked into the right stuff. Really happy to see him have a great shooting game like he did tonight.

“So we were fortunate to get these two wins on the road trip, both Arkansas and here. Now, we got to lock in. We’ve got a pretty tough stretch here these last seven games coming up.”

Oats on playing in the Moody Center; Texas being hampered by injuries…

“I thought the Moody Center was one of the best arenas, maybe the best in the SEC. It’s my first time in here. I thought it was great. They’ve got the boxes up there. They made it so it’s small enough. What’d they have, 11,000? And if they want to make it bigger. I think it’s great. I thought it was a pretty good atmosphere tonight, to be honest with you. We’re the No. 2 team in the country coming in here, so they sold the place out, I’m assuming. So I thought it was good. I’m a big fan of the Moody Center. 

“And then I’m not totally familiar with all the injuries. I know that Mark was out, but he played 37 minutes tonight. So assuming he’s not injured anymore, too much. Kaluma, sorry. I knew Kaluma had gone out. He didn’t start the second half. And he’s good. He only played 11 minutes. So obviously, when you’re missing a starter – and we’re dealing with it too. 

“Wrightsell was one of the best shooters in the country. He’s out for the whole year with his Achilles. Houston Mallette leads the team in offensive leverage when he was in. He shot it well. He’s gonna end up having to redshirt on the year for his knees. Derrion Reid is a McDonald’s All-American that’s been a big contributor. He’s out for us. 

“So it’s definitely affected Texas, I’m sure. I mean, shoot, when Kaluma couldn’t come back there in the second half, you’re missing a starter that you put your game plan together with, and then he’s not in there. That’s tough. He’s a good player. But it’s also part of sports. We’ve got three guys out that we planned on playing this year, as well.”

Oats on the defensive strategy against a focal-point player like Tre Johnson…

“Look, Trey’s really good. Our thing with him was, again, he had a fairly efficient night, to be honest with you. Nine-of-17. To score 24 points on 17 shots is pretty efficient. Not quite as efficient as Jarin, but Jarin is not the focal point of everybody’s defense like Tre is. So our thing with him was, like, we know he’s going to get shots up. We just need to make sure they’re tough, contested. He’s gonna make some. He’s not gonna make enough tough, non-rim twos to beat us. So let’s don’t let him get to the rim. Let’s run him off the 3-point line. We didn’t do a very good job of that at times. We gave up the three in the corner and the underneath at a bounce play. We gave the three in transition. Or we didn’t get matched to him.

“There was a couple threes he got that we didn’t do a good job. But we tried to make sure that they took as many non-rim twos. And I’m looking, we took six non-rim twos and went 3-of-6. They took 20. They were 8-of-20. Looking at their percentage of shots, like 10 percent of our shots were non-rim twos, and almost 30 percent of their shots were non-rim twos. So our thing was, like, we knew they’d settle a little bit for that. So with Tre, we had some traps and some blitzes in that we needed. The problem was we kind of came with the baseline trap and he missed, we were giving up offensive rebounds. So we decided we’d be better off just settling with him taking a tough, contested pull-up over one of our defenders and not giving up the O boards. 

“Because they almost doubled us in second-chance points, which isn’t good. They had 13. We only had seven. If we cut out their second chance and our turnovers, they had 39 points, which is half of their points, 39 of their 80 came off our turnovers or second-chance points. So we were OK with Tre taking all tough shots he wanted. We said going in we gotta rebound and we gotta not turn the ball over. Well, we turned it over too much, and we didn’t do a good enough job rebounding. But good thing for us, our offense was clicking pretty well tonight.”

Oats on the team’s maturity to be focused; if Alabama is the best team in the country…

“We’ll see Saturday who’s the best team in the country, I guess. I do think we’ve got a mature group. They know they’ve prepared. We kind of get into it, the hay’s in the barn, if you will, going into these games. Like we know we have to do. We don’t get upset if the other team hits some tough shots we’re willing to give up. Now, the turnovers was a little upsetting. They had so many rebounds we gave up was a little upsetting. But we try to be intense, like you said, very intense. Play hard, give max effort. But we’re not trying to flip out over stuff. We come prepared. We know what we gotta do. We get it done. We execute the game plan. We get out of here with a win. 

“And do we think we’re the best team in the country? I think we got a chance to be, but Auburn’s the best team in the country right now, and we gotta knock them out on Saturday if we want to claim to be the best team in the country.”

Oats what winning on the road does for Alabama’s confidence moving forward…

“I think it’s huge because we had our bye game right in the middle. We had a kind of front first nine games, last night after the bye. Last nine we had five of them road, but it started with a 2-game road (trip). So now we got seven where four of the seven are (at) home. Only three of those seven are on the road. But I thought it was imperative that we get both these wins to stay in the hunt to win the league. 

“We dropped the home one against Ole Miss, which we just didn’t play very well, and Ole Miss played very well. Auburn dropped the home one to Florida. So we’ve each dropped the home one. We each get each other still. We get a home and away with them. But road wins aren’t easy in this league at all. You saw it. Arkansas’ record isn’t great, but shoot, that was a 3-point game with three minutes ago on the game up in Arkansas Saturday. So I think you’re gonna see some teams get upset. I haven’t seen any of the final scores tonight from games. I saw Auburn was up 12 last I looked pretty late in the game. I’m assuming they won. 

“Kentucky beat Tennessee? That was at Kentucky? Yeah, so there you go. I mean, Tennessee is a really good team. I think the metrics have Tennessee ahead of us, and they go into Kentucky – and that was a tough win for us to get a Kentucky, and Tennessee loses at Kentucky. So there’s no guaranteed road wins. I mean, shoot, South Carolina, I’m guessing they still want to win, but they played Auburn down to like two points, I think. So even if you go to a place like South Carolina that hasn’t been able to win, they’re still playing the best teams in our league really tough on the road, or at their place. So to get two road wins on this road trip is big for us. It gives us some confidence. 

“We’ve played well on the road, though. I think this is our eighth game in a row we’ve scored 85 on the road. We’ve got a veteran group. They tend to like the road, for whatever reason. They like seeing the stands empty early when they can. They seem to embrace it in a villain role, if you will, going in, knocking some teams off on the road. 

“So I love this group. They play hard. It’s great to see some of these guys, Dioubate and Jarin, shoot it really well tonight, contribute to great a offensive game for us.”

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