Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's exhibition vs. Memphis

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – Alabama defeated Memphis, 96-88, in a charity exhibition on Monday night at the Von Braun Center. After the Crimson Tide’s final tuneup of the preseason, coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters. Here is everything Oats said during his press conference.

Oats’ opening statement…

“There’s a reason we play the exhibitions – so that we can get exposed a little bit on what we got to work on. We definitely got exposed tonight a little bit. I thought our turnovers were not where we need them to be, and we got to do a better job taking care of the ball. Our defensive rebounding, our transition defense, they exposed in a bad way. They got all over the offensive boards, they had 23 O boards. They kind of came from everywhere, too. And then our transition – I mean, shoot, 36 fastbreak points is not good. 

“So we’ve got a lot of work to do before the regular season, but I thought it was good that we got some young guys. Labaron is a freshmen that got to play. Holloway’s in his first year with us, got to play a decent amount of minutes with some of those other guys being out. Derrion’s been out a lot in the summer, in the fall with some injuries, so he’s a little bit rusty, but we were able to get him 24 minutes. Cliff, we need to get Cliff kind of used to our pace and our system a little bit more. So I think we got a lot of new guys a lot of minutes. Kind of if you go through the roster, look, out of the five starters, only one was with us last year, and off the bench, Mo and Jarin were with us last year, that was it. I think we needed to get to new guys kind of used to how we play, but we gotta be a lot better in a lot of areas. 

“So super thankful Memphis agreed to do this for us. I’m glad we got to come up here to Huntsville. I think the crowd was great. I wish we’d have played a little bit better for them in the second half, but they were great. I enjoyed the game and glad we were able to get a win, but definitely got a lot to work on here.”

Oats on having a team that can have 20 turnovers and still score 96 points…

“We definitely have some offensive firepower, and we’re playing a team in Memphis that was willing to – I mean, they want to run, too. They wanna run. They’re better in a transition tonight than we were. So got a lot of possessions. We didn’t make free throws either. I did think when we shot it decent from three. We didn’t get enough threes off. That’s our turnovers. We just didn’t move the ball well enough. But we shot it alright from the field. We just missed some free throws, turned it over and you get a high-possession game with two teams like us. We got a chance to end up with 96 points, but the efficiency wasn’t what we needed it to be, though.”

Oats on scheduling a physical team like Memphis; how Alabama handled that…

“I think it was really good to play a team like that because we’re gonna have to play Houston yet, we play Tennessee yet. I didn’t think we did a very good job handling the physicality most of the games, to be honest with you. That’s why we ended up with 20 turnovers. So we’re gonna be a lot better before we play some of these more aggressive, physical teams that are coming up.”

Oats on his thoughts on Memphis…

“I think Memphis has really good athletes. Obviously, Haggerty is good. Hunter has been great in his career. They’ve got a really good backcourt. They got room protection. I think they got a chance to be pretty good. I thought they gave better effort than us for a lot of the night. So they got good guard play, they got bigs that get to the O boards and they can protect the rim. I think they got a chance. I mean, they were picked in second the American behind who? (UAB.) UAB was picked one and Memphis two? Yeah, I think they’re gonna be right there and in a fight to win it. UAB is obviously really good, too, but they’re gonna have a chance to win the American. They’ll be right in it again.”

Oats on Alabama’s defensive breakdowns in the second half…

“I think we gave up 16 points the first three minutes of the second half. I didn’t think our mentality was right coming out of the half, which was a little disappointing, a little immature. Up 20 at the half, come out, think it’s gonna be easy. Next thing you know, you give up 16 points the first three minutes of the half. I thought we got driven too much, gave up offensive rebounds. The first possession of the second half, we gave up an O board. Gave up another one at the free-throw line. Fouled too much. Our mentality wasn’t good to start the second half and it kind of continued the entire second half.”

Oats on how to avoid complacency…

“We’ve talked about this as a team. Like the efficiency numbers matter. When you’re playing for tournament seeding, your defensive efficiency, wherever the possession comes in the course of the game, no matter what your lead is, they’re all the same. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re up 20, up 10, first position of the game, tight game with two minutes to go, like they should all be played with the appropriate intensity. Like you’re trying to get – I mean, our defense efficiency numbers were not good last year. We’re trying to fix all that this year. 

“So you can’t take possessions off if you’re up 20 and get your efficiency numbers fixed. So I was really disappointed with our effort in the second half on the defensive end. Part of it is our turnovers fed some of the transition, too. Like our offense and how soft we were with the ball fed some of those easy buckets. I got a couple of my mind, like Derrion just hands them the ball, and they just lay it in with no contest at all. That had nothing to do with our defense, it was all our offense. So our offense and how soft we were with the ball contributed to some of those points on the defensive end, too.”

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