Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 81-54 win over Kent State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 6 Alabama defeated Kent State, 81-54, on Sunday afternoon inside Coleman Coliseum. After the Crimson Tide advanced to 10-2 on the 2024-25 season, Alabama head coach Nate Oats spoke to local reporters. Below is everything that Oats said.

Oats’ opening statement…

“A much better defensive effort, so it will be a lot better Christmas break for us. We did make a big point of emphasis on defense, especially after that debacle up in North Dakota with Eaglestaff. What we felt like the one guy that could get going like Eaglestaff on this team was Sullinger, and he ended up shooting 1-of-14. He didn’t score in the second half, so I think we did a little bit better job being locked into a perimeter guy that can kind of get going. We held them to a pretty good field goal percentage. They only shot 28 percent. 

“Traditionally, that’s been one of the hardest playing teams. I was in the MAC for six years, and they get all the O boards. We gave up too many second-chance points; they had 14. But I thought for the most part, our first-shot defense was good. We needed to rebound a little bit better on the defensive end. Offensively, I thought we got to the O boards really well. We ended up with 22 second-chance points and 20 O boards. So I thought that was pretty good. 

“We struggled a little offensively, and we’re gonna have to figure some stuff out here before SEC play. The turnovers have been really just way too many. Thirteen in the first half. We did the same thing two games in a row. We only had one the second half against North Dakota. We ended up with six in the second half here. So we’ve got to do a better job at turnovers. I don’t have an answer for the free throw problems, but the only way to fix that is get in the gym and work. The good thing for us is we don’t have any school for a few weeks here, so after they get back from Christmas break, we’ll be in the gym and putting some time in. 

“And then the threes, we just gotta keep shooting good threes, get the right guys taking them. We’re never gonna pass down an open look from three. I thought Holloway did a really good job there in the second half kind of getting us going a little bit. Sears ended up hitting that one in the second half. But we’ve got some shooters that we can get going between Sears, Holloway, Youngblood and Labaron.”

Oats’ middle daughter asks who is his favorite daughter, what he’s getting her for Christmas…

“Well, I only have one daughter that made the game, so that helps you. But I probably shouldn’t answer that one because that’ll get me in some trouble. What did I get her for Chrismas? Look, to be fair, I’ve asked her for about a month what she wants. At first, it was something I couldn’t really get. The only other thing I got is tickets to The Weeknd concert. So I looked them up and the only concert I saw was out in LA. So I’m not sure how you’re going to get there. So if any of you got connections to The Weeknd concert, you can help me out in the next two days before Christmas. 

“Shoot, I also need to get a car fixed that she’s already wrecked. She’s not even 16. So she’s 15 and already wrecked her car, so that’s the other request, to get her car fixed. So we’re working to get the car fixed by sometime in January. She hit a deer. So we got a wrecked car, The Weeknd concert and one other request that’s not really feasible. She hasn’t helped me out. So if you help me out a little bit better, I’ve got a couple days to go Christmas shopping.”

Oats on playing good defense while not putting Kent State on the line…

“… Look, the most efficient way to score is getting to the free throw line. So on defense, if you’re trying to have an efficient defense, you got to keep teams off the free-throw line. I thought we did a pretty good job of that. Now, they obviously shot it a lot better than we did. So it’s a good thing we did keep them off the line. Sullinger was only 1-of-14 from the floor but he went 4-of-4 at the free-throw lines, so it’s a good thing we kept him off. 

“I thought our guys did a pretty good job staying on the ground, using their length, not buying shot fakes and just making them shoot tough, contested shots. They ended up 28 percent, 21-of-75 from the floor. So I thought we did a pretty good job making them take some tough shots. And they just missed some open shots where we screwed up defensively, too. But we definitely don’t want to send teams to the free-throw line, and I thought we did a pretty good job that today.”

Oats on the smaller lineup of Holloway, Mallette, Youngblood, Reid and Dioubate…

“We definitely have options to go really big. We can play Derrion Reid at the two if we wanted and put Jarin at the three with Grant and Cliff. We can go smaller where we play Mo D at the five, Derrion at the four. I had Houston and CY in at kind of the wings, which gives you some athleticism, I thought Mo D had a really big block. Mo D’s had some great blocks this year. Derrion’s had some great blocks. So even though those guys aren’t 6-10, 6-11, 7-foot, they played big. They rebounded well. They’re tough. They can block shots. 

“So we’ve got different options we can go to. Sometimes we just need to get athletic, fly around a little bit and get the ball up the floor. We were struggling on offense. I thought maybe those guys could get to the O boards, maybe could turn them over a little bit, maybe get out in transition. So I don’t even know if it worked. I don’t know if you got the points on that one or not. That part of it was we needed to take care of the ball, too. That was an issue tonight.”

Oats on if he feels like the defensive message is getting across…

“We’re deep. We got to get the rotation trimmed. If you’re not going to guard, you’re just not going to stay in the game. So we got to do it. If you’re going to turn the ball over, you got to come out, too. Some of these silly, careless, casual turnovers got to get eliminated. I’m not a coach that likes to yank guys a lot. I’d like to give them their confidence. But like effort stuff, like, we got no problem pulling guys. So like lack of effort on defense, they’re gonna come out. And then we just gotta quit being so casual with the ball on the offensive end.”

Oats on if this game helped solidify the rotation…

“I think every game’s building a little bit more towards figuring out what we’re trying to do. I think this is helping maybe solidify it. I mean, there’s a few guys that we just can’t take out the rotation. They’re just playing too good. But I think we can get it down to nine or 10 pretty quick. We got one more game before SEC play, and we’ll try to I figure it out.”

Oats on Mark Sears’ performance; what more he wants out of him…

“Look, he’s been playing really hard on defense. I’ve been super happy with the way Mark’s been playing over the last month, month and a half. The only real issue is his turnovers. We just got to get him to cut down on the turnovers, and it’s not for lack of wanting to do well. He’s trying to make the right reads. Sometimes he’s so aggressive – he had the one turnover the first half, he kind of drove into a crowd. We got to stop those. The one he threw it out of bounds in the second half, there was a little bit of miscommunication between him and Houston, if Houston had stayed or lifted. 

“But five turnovers is a little bit too many. Other than that, though, I mean, you look at how hard he’s been playing on defense. He won blue-collar two games ago, I believe. I mean, he’s been giving us really good minutes, I thought. So we need him to keep doing what he’s been doing. Just kind of cut the turnovers down. Yeah, I’m looking right now, he had positive defensive leverage, and that wasn’t always the case. So he’s been playing well.

“Merry Christmas. We’ll see you see after Christmas.”

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