Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 90-69 win over Georgia

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 4 Alabama defeated Georgia, 90-69, on Saturday night at Coleman Coliseum. After the Crimson Tide advanced to 19-3 (8-1 SEC) on the season, head coach Nate Oats spoke to local reporters. Below is everything Oats said following the decisive victory.

Oats’ opening statement…

“Before I get going on the game, so it was Suits and Sneakers Week for cancer awareness. They’ve been doing a long time with the NABC. So that’s why we went with the suits and sneakers, which I had our whole staff do suits and sneakers to bring awareness. If you saw it, too, there were also some pink ribbons that the managers and support staff wore. One of our managers, Mason Benedetti’s mother, Susie, passed away over Thanksgiving, which is a little bit tough on the program. Mason’s been with us for a while. So they all wore the pink ribbons, just to bring awareness the breast cancer. My mother’s fought cancer and beat it. So for those of you writing anything about Suits and Sneakers or cancer awarewess, that’s why the pink ribbons were worn.

“To get to the game, unbelievable effort from our guys. Really the effort we’ve been looking for outside of the start to the second half. You take that four minutes out, which I wasn’t very happy with that effort, but the other 36 minutes, I thought we played really hard, out-rebounded a really good team by 16, still scored 20 even though we had 20 turnovers. Now, we gotta fix the turnovers. Obviously, it’s a major problem, and 12 of those 20 were from three of our fifth-year seniors, which shouldn’t be the case. But I thought those guys kind of set the tone. I thought this was the hardest Sears has played. I told him, it’s good to see. I thought he had some turnovers. He sprinted back, made tough plays on D, didn’t sulk, didn’t pout. His leadership, the effort he gave tonight I think really helped set the tone for how the team’s supposed to look. 

“Defensively, we held them to a 0.88, which is really hard to do, particularly when you turn it over 20 times and they got plenty of opportunities to score off our turnovers. We still sprinted back, made big stops. So if we can take that mentality, that effort on the defensive end and clean up the offense, we’ve got something headed in the right direction here going in the second half of conference play. 

“Grant, somebody gave me a stat here – the only player in the SEC this year to have 16, 10 and five in under 30 minutes. I think that kind of speaks to our depth. Like Dioubate plus-20, only played 11 and a half minutes. Like we’ve got guys that impact the game in short amounts of time. That’s what some of the guys are kind of trying to figure out, having to figure out is you may not get a ton of minutes, but it’s what you do in your minutes. And then if you play well in your minutes, they’re going to go up.

“Like Aiden Sherrell plays 20 minutes tonight, season-high in minutes, but he’s also, we’re plus-16 when he’s in the game. I thought his defense in the interior, he did a good job with their bigs. And you kind of look at some of what some of the bigs shot on the day. I didn’t think they shot it particularly well. And they kind of force-feed it into the post, if you will. And I thought our bigs, for the most part – Asa got going there a little bit early in the second half – but for the most part, I thought our bigs did a pretty good job pushing their catches out, forcing tougher shots. Asa is a really good player. A ton of respect for him. Ends up with 16 and seven but takes 15 shots, goes 6-of-15 from the floor. So I thought defensively, we made big jumps, and that’s we wanted to see going into this break here.”

Oats on if Aiden Sherrell’s jump in minutes are a result of practice performance…

“It’s a good question. I think he’s typically practiced – we’ve never had an issue with him as far as effort in practice goes. But he played well. I kind of told you we do this poll where I have the guys grade the team as a whole on five categories and vote for practice MVP. Well, he had the most votes, I believe, on the last practice. So he’s played well, deserved to play some minutes, knew that they played two bigs the entire game, so there’d be an opportunity for us to get our frontcourt some more minutes. And he took advantage of them.

“And then to go to the shooting. This kid’s shot 40 – we chart everything from the time they get here in the summer, so on all of our live 5-on-5, drills, scrimmage, everything all summer and fall, he shot 40 percent three. So it’s hard sometimes in limited minutes when you know you’re not going to be in there a bunch, to shoot it great. We just keep encouraging him to shoot. I tell him in my mind, he’s a 40 percent shooter. Don’t worry about what the numbers say. As long as your feet are set, you’re stepping in and it’s a good shot, let it fly. I was happy to see the first one go and he hit the next one. 

“So he goes 2-of-3 from three, and he struggled with the line a little bit through the year, even though he’s a great shooter. He goes 4-of-4 at the line, ends up with 12 points and seven rebounds in 20 minutes and we’re plus-16 when he’s in the game. So can’t say enough about Aiden tonight.”

Oats on the way Mark Sears, Grant Nelson played in the second half…

“I think their attitudes and their intentions were really good in the first half. The turnovers were just killing us. I told Mark, too, in the second half, I think he had one turnover. I think he had five at the half and only had one in the second half. ‘This is actually great. You’re kind of struggling a little bit on offense.’ He still ends up with 20 even though he struggled. Didn’t shoot it great. Goes 6-of-14, didn’t miss a free throw. But struggled a little bit in his mind, for sure, if you count turnovers and the shooting on offense. But it never really affected his effort on defense, which I think is an enormous jump for him, which is the jump we’ve been looking for him to make. So super happy with him. 

“And then Grant’s effort, outside of the first four minutes of the second half, I thought Grant’s effort was outstanding. To have five blocks. Our team had nine blocks. They just kind of force-feed it inside, and I think he kind of stood his ground, made some blocks in there on some of that stuff. Sixteen, 10 and five is a pretty good night for him.”

Oats on Cliff Omoruyi establishing a presence inside of late…

“What he did in the minutes that he got, and again, he did end up in foul trouble. I don’t mind playing guys with two fouls in the first half, but with the way Aiden Sherrell had it going, you just figure we’d try to save his fouls in case we really needed him in the second half. So he didn’t play as many minutes as he usually does. It’s kind of due to foul trouble and Aiden Sherrell playing the way he did. But in 15 minutes, to have 11 rebounds, four on the offensive end, is still pretty impressive. 

“This is what we’ve just been trying to sell all these guys with our depth. It’s what you do in your minutes. It’s not necessarily how many minutes you get. Outside of Sears, nobody played more than 27 minutes. CY was right at 27, and then everybody that’s on scholarship played over 12. Dioubate was hurt, or he would have gone over 12, and what he did in his minutes, to be plus-20 in 11:30, ridiculous. He won the Hard Hat, 20 blue-collar points in 11 and a half minutes, ridiculous what he does in there. So just in the amount of minutes some of these guys played, what they really get done, like Cliff, Mo Dioubate are right up there at the top.”

Oats on if it’s hard to get the turnover message across when you still win by 21 points…

“I hope not. We’re gonna spend a lot of time on Monday and Tuesday figuring out how to not turn ball over because we’ve had this issue way too many times. It’s gonna come back to bite us if we don’t get it fixed, particularly on the road, teams that can take advantage of it a little bit more out in open court after turnovers, we gotta get fixed. So I hope we’re mature enough that we understand. And I think we will. Like I said, 12 of the 20 turnovers came from three of our fifth-year seniors. So I hope those guys are mature enough to understand you can learn just as much of a win as you can with a loss.”

Oats on what improvements he saw defensively to hold Georgia to 38 percent…

“Post defense was better, outside of that first four minutes in the second half. Ball screen defense was better. They don’t run near as many ball screens as some other teams we’ve played, but I thought it was better. I thought we got guys pushed in. We forced a lot more non-paints twos than – the ball had been getting downhill to the rim way too much earlier. I’m looking at their defense right now, over a fourth of their shots, 20 of their shots were non-rim twos. I thought we did a better job forcing them into the shots that we – … I thought post defense, pick-and-roll defense and just overall effort, to be honest with you.” 

Oats on the bye week focus for Labaron Philon, Derrion Reid…

“They’ve gotta get back in the groove. They’ve been out too long. When you miss practice reps, you don’t play well. I don’t even really expect them to play well, to be honest with you, because you can’t just miss all these reps and then expect to walk in and be good. So I mean, they got to live with Clarke here today, tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. Like they gotta get healthy so they can get practice reps, so they get back in the flow and get playing like they’re capable of playing. Yeah, I mean, their effort was great. I got no issue with their effort. But you kind of look at what – the two of them combined to go 0-for-6. It’s hard if you don’t get practice reps. You look, 0-for-6 and two assists to four turnovers between the two of them. It’s not like they’re not trying to play bad. It’s just in order to play well, you gotta get your reps. They’re missing game reps, missing practice reps. So we got to get those two healthy so they can help us on this stretch run.”

Oats on Nelson, others chasing blue-collar points more since the Ole Miss game…

“Didn’t have any is not far off. Yeah, I have. I mean, Sears had 14 tonight. Grant was a half of one behind Dioubate. I mean, you look at Mo D, 20; Grant, 19.5; Cliff with 15; Sears with 14. These guys are kind of really trying to get after it. We got to get a couple of these other guys in the mix a little bit more, a little bit better. But Grant, I like the competition between them. Grant and Mo D are kind of the two that, my guess would be, want it the most this year. 

“I try to pump Jarin up, get him back winning it. He won it back-to-back games. but I thought Jarin’s mindset was right, playing hard, trying to make tough, blue-collar plays. And then, you know what, when your mindsets right and that’s what you more worried about than anything, Jarin didn’t miss a field goal, didn’t miss a free throw. So even though he didn’t end up being at the top of blue collar, I thought that was where his mindset was, and I think that translates. Just kind of lose yourself in the game like he did it tonight, and he ended up playing really well on the offensive end. Hopefully all of our guys kind of learn from it, keep competing to get blue-collar points, if you will, but make tough plays and get stops. 

“So good game defensively to go into a week break for us. Then we’ve just gotta clean up the offense here over this next week. So we’ll see you guys a week from today.”

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