Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 85-80 win over Houston

No. 9 Alabama defeated No. 6 Houston, 85-80, in overtime of its first game of the Players Era Festival on Tuesday night in Las Vegas. Following the Crimson Tide’s win to advance to 5-1 on the season, head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters. Below is everything Oats said.

Oats opening statement…

“We knew it was gonna be a cage match. … That’s the toughest, hardest playing team in America pretty much every night out the last five years. They’ve got more wins than anybody else in college basketball the last five years for a reason. I’ve got a ton of respect for how hard they play, how they do it. And to out-rebound a team like that by nine, you’ve gotta have some tough guys on our team, too. Mo got 16 rebounds, five offensive rebounds. For us to get 20 O boards against a team like that – they got 16, which is a lot. We gave up too many. 

“But you look at second-chance points, we out-scored them by two. The game was going to come down to who can take care of the ball. We had too many turnovers, but we made up for it with our effort and second-chance points. We out-scored them on second-chance points. We say if we could beat them at what they’re best at, second chance points, probably we could win the game. Now, it wasn’t easy. Defensively, they put a lot of pressure on us. We turned it over too much. 

“But some guys made some shots late, and our defense was great, both at the end of regulation and in overtime. They went 1-for-10 in overtime. Now, part of that may be they’re tired. I think we’re probably a little deeper. You’ve got a guy like Dioubate to come off the bench and give you 28 minutes, I thought that was huge. Holloway off the bench, I thought made big plays on both sides of the ball. The one turnover late, he got in there and got his hand on it when they tried to go post-up. 

“Proud of all our guys. I thought Mark was patient, let the scoring come to him, hit some big shots, got the free-throw line and made his free throws. We’ve gotta do a better job as a team making our free throws, but I thought Mark did a pretty good job. And Mo was 100 percent. He’s been working. Mo just stays with it. I couldn’t be more proud of the entire team, particularly these two guys sitting next to me right now.”

Oats on Clifford Omoruyi’s transition from Rutgers…

“We had real problems with our rim protection last year. When he became available in the transfer portal, we made that like our top priority because our defense was not very good last year, and a major problem was rim protection. We felt like he was arguably he was the best rim protector in the country. I didn’t realize what a great kid he was, though. We knew what he could do on the basketball floor, but once we got him, I don’t know if you watched him tonight, he didn’t play a ton of minutes because Mo Dioubate was playing really well and Grant was playing well, so we paired those guys in the frontcourt. But Cliff had the best energy, and he was so happy for Mo. 

“Hopefully tomorrow night is Cliff’s night, who knows? He should have fresh legs. I think his attitude, his character, how he treats everybody in the program – and then on top of that, he gives us a presence at the rim. I mean, he’s really good. So we’re gonna need him to win big games this year, and he was good in his minutes tonight. But he’s just an unbelievable kid. I’m super happy we get to have him for his last year, and I’m sure Rutgers had all the best things to say to about him from his years there before we were able to get him for his last year because he’s an unbelievable kid.”

Oats on Derrion Reid stepping up late…

“Listen, Derrion is athletic, plays hard, is about the right stuff. He was out a lot. He had a couple different injuries in the summer and the fall, so he wasn’t able to get the reps like Labaron got. Labaron’s been injury-free. So we’ve been trying to get Derrion going. We knew he had the size to be a great perimeter defender, and we needed him tonight. He was second on the team in +/-. He was a +7 when he was in there for his 18 minutes, and we put him in to get big stops and he rolled with the role that we gave him tonight with being a stopper. 

“I thought he hit a big three there, too. He finished a big one at the rim on our run. He did well all around, and I thought this was his best game. And we needed him. We don’t win the game without him. Different guys are gonna step up different nights. I’m sure he’s gonna have a big scoring game coming up here soon. But he’s just been doing whatever we need him to do to get wins so far.”

Oats on Alabama’s progress over this 3-game stretch vs. ranked teams…

“The Purdue game, we got manhandled a little bit. I didn’t think our physicality was where it needed to be, and we turned the ball over too much. The ball didn’t move. I thought if we’d have brought the intensity we brought tonight to that game, it might have been a little bit different. But that’s we play them. We like to schedule good programs. Purdue is one of the best programs in the country over the last five years or so. And they exposed some stuff we needed to work on, and I think what they exposed, we’ve gotten better at. The ball’s been moving a lot better. Our post D has been a lot better. Our rebounding, our toughness has been better.

“We were better against Illinois. Illinois is a really skilled, great offensive team, and I thought we were solid on defense for a lot of that game and our offense was significantly better than Purdue. Now, we go back to a game against Houston where it’s just gritty, tough, physical, great defensive rebounding team, and we matched their physicality for most of the game. So now, we’ve got a Rutgers opponent. … They’re good. I told our team – Antoine Pettay, the head coach at Kennesaw State, was my assistant for four years. He’s done a great job. I think maybe Rutgers early on, I’m sure they didn’t expect Kennesaw to be as good as they were. I told them we’re gonna get a whole lot different version of Rutgers, I’m sure, than what happened at Kennesaw. 

“They’re super talented. Both those guys are supposed to be top-five picks, somebody told me, and it looks like it from the little bit of film I’ve watched. I’ve gotta get back and watch a bunch of film tonight and see what they’re doing. Coach Pikiell’s done an unbelievable job there. They’re tough, physical. Similar to Houston in that regard, in some ways. We’re gonna have to bring it against them again. They’ll be a little bit younger with some high-level talent with Harper and Ace Bailey. They’re good, though. They’re really good, and we’re gonna have to be ready to go tomorrow.”

Oats on Aden Holloway’s fit in Alabama’s system…

“Super skilled, shoots it really well, can stretch the floor, makes great reads as a point guard, can really pass the ball and he’s gotten significantly better on defense. We challenged him on the defensive end, challenged him to make some plays. We challenged him to rebound the basketball. He ended up with three rebounds, which I think he told me he was gonna have six. So we’ll take three. He contributed to us out-rebounding them by nine. But he made some tough plays. I think he’s a great fit for us with how we spread the floor out and how we value skilled, unselfish guards that can really stretch the floor with his shooting. He doesn’t miss many shots in practice. I’ve seen him make some really tough shots, deep shots, and he’s been great for us.”

Oats on how Mo Dioubate’s defense set up the offense…

“Mo’s great on defense. His rebounding, those three blocked shots, I mean, they were timely blocks. He erased some mistakes. He had a little bit of Noah Clowney in him, if you will. Our defense was third in the country that year Noah was with us, and he erased lots of mistakes. We need a guy that can play the four, pair with Grant at the five or even Cliff maybe sometimes at the five and make some plays. But that sequence where he got the block and we came down and hit the three, that was big. Basketball is a game of runs. We started out on the bad side of a run. We didn’t play very well to start the game. When they got up, we went on a big run and went up eight. That was in the middle of that, if I remember correctly. And then we had to grind out some stops there after we gave that lead away, but I thought our guys did a pretty good job of that.”

Oats on how well Alabama executed the defensive game plan…

“It was pretty good. I’m looking here at our analytics box score, and on non-rim twos, they took 36 shots there. So over half their shots, they only got 55 percent of their shots were non-rim twos, and they shot it at 39 percent. I know some of them went in. Everybody’s gonna refer to the ones that went in, but they missed almost two-thirds of them. That was the game plan. I just think Cryer was the one that really kind of got going, and we had to adjust the game plan for him. It worked for everybody else, and it didn’t work very well for him. He ended up with 30 points, and we probably should have made some adjustments earlier in the game, to be honest with you. When you’re up eight, you think things are going well, and all of a sudden, they’re not. 

“I thought defensively, they’re good. They’re a good team. They do a great job. They don’t turn the ball over much, they get a shot up on goal and then they go try to kill you on the O boards. So the biggest thing was making them take tough first shots. I thought our first-shot defense was pretty good. Our second-shot defense was good enough to win. And they’re a good team. There’s no way nobody’s every blowing them out. They play too hard to ever get blown out. That’s not really even possible when you play Houston. We knew it was gonna be a tight game, and we made enough plays, particularly late in regulation and late in overtime, to win the game.”

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