Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 72-64 win over McNeese State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – The Alabama basketball men’s team defeated McNeese State, 72-64, on Monday night to advance to 3-0 on the season. Following the No. 2-ranked Crimson Tide’s win, head coach Nate Oats spoke to local reporters. Below is everything that Oats said.

Oats’ opening statement…

“We’ve played two really good mid-major teams. They tested us on both games, and I think it’s gonna be great for us moving forward. I’d like to see us pull away a little bit. We got up 21 on them early in the second half, and then I thought McNeese – you’ve gotta give them a ton of credit. When we got 21, they didn’t cave. They didn’t quit. They kept fighting. They ended up out-rebounding us on the offensive side. They had 12 O boards to our 10. In the first half, we were really on it. They kept us off the O boards in the second half, and they got them. I thought they played really hard.

“I think it’s good for our guys to go against different types of playing styles. I thought the press, with the switching everything, stagnated our offense. We made one out of our last nine threes. I thought the second half, particularly the last probably 14 minutes of the game, they did a really job taking us out of what we wanted to do. I thought we played way too slow. I thought the ball ended up getting to the right place at times but way too late in the clock. We played down in the last 10 seconds of the shot clock way more often than we’d like to do so. 

“But again, we knew they were going to be a good team. We knew they were going to be really athletic. Those guys are going to beat a lot of good teams this year. They’re picked to win their league for a reason. You got to give them a ton of credit. They made a lot of tough shots. I mean, we chart the stuff, they shot 11-of-22 on non-rim twos, and most of them were pretty contested. So they kind of defied the percentages there a little bit, and we just gotta give them a ton of credit for how hard they played and how they stayed in there.”

Oats’ on Alabama’s offensive movement…

“Not good enough. This game, I didn’t like it. I thought we didn’t play with pop. We didn’t push the ball off the floor enough. We ended up with 68 possessions on offense. I don’t have the exact numbers in my head right now, but the four previous games, if you count the two exhibitions, I think we were in the 80s on maybe three of them, maybe all four of them. I think Memphis was like high 80s. So to have like 20 less possessions, that’s not really how we’re trying to play. 

“Now, the good thing is Purdue’s gonna slow it down, I guess, knowing what their playing style has been for a long time up there. So we’re gonna have to win some games where the other team tries to slow it down. We’re just gonna have to be a lot more efficient in the possessions we get. Now, they switched. We stood there, we stared at it. We held the ball too long. I didn’t think we had very good ball movement tonight.

“We ended up with a decent assist rate. I think 73 percent of our field goals, we had 16 assists on 22 field goals. So it ended up being decent. And I think a lot of times we went to the free-throw line was off what would have been an assist if we made a field goal. So I thought as the possession wore on, we ended up – I didn’t think we were selfish. I just didn’t think we moved the ball enough. We just sat there and stared at the switch and didn’t move quick enough.”

Oats on what he’s seen from the defense; how much trust he has in late-game situations…

“I thought we did a fairly decent job for a majority of the game. I think we’ve got different options we can go to. I thought Cliff came alive there. He had three blocks. We put him back in there in the second half. I thought he did pretty well. And then they were kind of starting to get downhill against his drops, so we put Jarin and Grant at the four and five and switched. We’ve got different options. I thought Wrightsell was really good. You look at plus-minus, Wrightsell led the team at plus-17, and then Jarin, even though he didn’t shoot it well particularly, he was a plus-16 when he was in the game. 

“So if you look at our defensive leverage numbers, Trelly was high. We were a lot better with him in the game. Mark’s consistently in positive defensive leverage, which is great for Mark because, well, that’s a big point emphasis with him this year. He’s been good at it. Jarin, we were better with him in the game. Mo Dioubate, you expect that. But Derrion Reid, we were able to put him in late. So we’ve got some tough, athletic wing forwards that we can put in and be pretty versatile, or you can go with like a rim protector like Cliff, depending on what the other team’s got going and who they’ve got in. 

“So defensively, we haven’t been bad. I mean, this team is going to put up some numbers on some teams. They’re going to get to the O boards and kill some teams. You saw they got some guys that can make tough shots. So I didn’t think defense was necessarily a problem. I did think the defensive glass in the second half was a little bit of an issue, but I thought offense was more of the issue tonight.”

Oats on what he learned about his team from the first three games…

“Our upside is high like I think we all knew. We also learned that if we don’t play with a competitive edge, we’re not all that special. We’ve gotta have a competitive edge. The ball’s gotta move. We gotta play the way we know how to play, and we’re pretty good. But two mid-major teams that are very good for their level – I haven’t seen a mid-major pool. I would guess these two would be the top five, I would think. I don’t want to speak out of turn on that. But I think they’re both highly talented and play hard and are well-coached. But we played two mid-major teams that – Arkansas State, we were tied with seven to go, and McNeese cut the thing to six there late in the second half.

“So if we don’t play the right way, with a competitive edge and a fire – like we chart the blue collar every four-minute – we call them four-minute wars. Like we lost the last four of the game. So we were up on. We didn’t lose one for the first six. We lost the last four. So after we got up 21 with 14 to go, that under-16, under-12 four-minute deal, we lost the blue-collar battle there. Then we lost it the next one, and we lost the next one, and then we lost the last one. 

“So I didn’t think our effort was great once we got a 21-point lead, and that’s an issue. We’ve got to be competitive no matter what the scoreboard is, and I think both games, we get up 16 on Arkansas State, let them cut it to three at the half. They end up tying it with seven to go. We get up 21 on this team, and they end up cutting it to six. We’ve got to do a better job playing hard and competitive with a lead.”

Oats on Grant Nelson’s improvement…

“It’s huge. He had some great games last year. You think of the North Carolina game. He had a huge impact in that game. This was a game if he doesn’t play as well as he did, we may not win the game. So it’s great to have him. I think people forget he missed the entire summer because he had an injury, and then he had another injury and missed both exhibition games and missed about a month of practice. So he’s just now getting back into rhythm. 

“I think he looks like he’s back to close to 100 percent, to me, after that game. So it’s good to get him back there. I think a combination of him being aggressive on offense, shooting it well – he hit those two threes. Going to the free-throw line, converting at the free-throw line. And then he led us in rebounds with eight. He had 22 and eight. I thought his energy was great. So we’re going to need that out of him moving forward on a pretty consistent basis.”

Oats on what Alabama gains from playing a team like McNeese State…

“I think you get exposed on some stuff that if you just played a bad mid to low major team that can’t really test you, you think everything’s fine. Well, I think we all know everything’s not fine. We had plenty of stuff we got to work on after tonight. So it’s a little easier when you don’t blow a team out – we only beat this team by eight – to get your guys’ attention and show them what you gotta work. Our defensive rebound is a problem. Our turnovers are a major problem. We had 15 again tonight. It’s an issue. Attacking switching defenses, I thought we’d do a lot better at it. We didn’t. We got to go through that. Letting them press slowed us down. That was a problem. 

“So they exposed us on multiple levels that we can now work on before we get into league play. That’s been my philosophy ever since I’ve got here. Schedule a really tough non-league schedule so that you can figure out all the issues you possibly can and be ready to play come SEC play. So I love the fact that McNeese and Arkansas State challenged us. They’re both going to make us better. 

“And now, we got our first true road game up at Purdue, and they’re obviously really good. I believe they’re picked to win the Big Ten, and we battled them pretty well up to Toronto last year. They got a little bit different look, as do we. Shoot, they’ve got one of the best home environments in the country, from what I’ve heard. I’ve never been there, but this is why we play these games. This is why the guys work. This is why we like to do it. We like to play some of the best teams in the country, as evidenced by the next seven games here with who we’re playing. And I want to see where we stand against the best in the country, and this will be a good test for us on Friday.”

Oats on Latrell Wrightsell’s impact…

“This is what we expected him to be. I think he’s another one that missed the exhibitions with an injury, so he just now getting back into his rhythm. The 1-for-9, that’s not him last game. Some of those were good shots. He just missed some of them. You got to get a feel for what’s a good shot, what’s not. Some of that’s hard to do if you’re not practicing like he was out a month. So I thought he had a lot better feeling. Honestly, I thought he turned down some that I wished he would take it. As well as he was shooting it tonight, there was three or four he should have shot, I thought. And if he’d have taken three or four more and get 12 or 13 threes up, that’d be great, because he’s one of the best shooters in the country, in my opinion.

“Last year at Mississippi State, we yanked him when he turned one down, and he came in and hit one. He turned some down, Holloway turned some down. I don’t really care that Trelly was 5-of-9 and Holloway was 0-for-5. They’re both great shooters, and they both can’t turn down open shots. But it was great that Trelly hit those early, got us going when we needed them. That helped build the lead up to 21 when we had it up. 

“Part of the lead getting cut, we didn’t execute on offense as well as we needed to. Some of it, we just missed shots, too. Some of that goes with it. It’s ebb and flow of basketball games is you miss some shots. But to get outdone on the blue-collar stuff, the effort stuff for the last four four-minute battles was a little bit my issue. We just gotta get some O boards when guys are missing. But Trelly, shoot, Trelly played 31 minutes. He led us in plus-minus with plus-17 when he was in. We needed him to play as well on both sides of the ball as he did tonight. It’s great to have him back. It looks like he’s pretty well back, him and Grant both.”

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