Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's exhibition vs. Wake Forest

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Alabama defeated Wake Forest, 98-77, in a charity exhibition on Friday night at Boutwell Auditorium. After the Crimson Tide’s first competition against a different team this season, coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters. Here is everything he said.

Oats’ opening statement…

“It was good to get this group out together for the first time. We didn’t have four of our guys, but I thought we had enough of them to kind of see how we wanna play. I thought the defensive intensity was better than what we had seen at points last year. I thought it had some lapses. But I thought the play Sears made – he kind of stood the guy up, got a steal and then they fouled him getting out. I thought the play Derrion Reid made with the block, the save and then we get the block on the other end. Those effort plays are what we’re trying to be about.

“We got a few threes up. We got 46 of them up. I think that’s – we’re trying to play fast, open, take threes. I think you see how well Holloway can shoot it. Some of these guys get their feet under them and get comfortable, we’ve got a chance to put some points up. But I was more pleased with our defense, our rebounding and our effort. But it’ll get better, and we’ll continue to get better with some of that stuff.”

Oats on Alabama’s rim protection…

“Obviously having Cliff in there helps a lot. I think having perimeter size, too, is big. Derrion Reid with two blocks. Some of the wings and guards are trying to drive him, and he plays so hard. He’s long, he’s athletic. He’s gonna help a lot. I think Jarin Stevenson can kind of help protect. He ended up with a block. And then Mo Dioubate had the one big one that kind of saved a transition bucket.

“So we’ve got some positional size when we want it. Jarin Stevenson can play the three. Derrion Reid can kind of play two, three, even some one maybe if you kind of play Holloway and Sears off the ball a little bit and get them some more threes. So you could put some length and size out there, and then obviously getting Cliff helps protecting the rim. That block he got down there, just not sure we would have seen that with our team last year.”

Oats on if Aden Holloway’s a continuation of what he’s shown in practice…

“For sure. He’s been shooting it really well in practice. I mean, you saw how deep he can shoot. He’s got really deep range, and we’re gonna want him to spread the floor and stretch the floor and take some deep threes to get the defense spread out a little bit more.”

Oats on Mo Dioubate’s impact…

“We love Mo. Him and Derrion Reid were like right there for the Hard Hat. Derrion ended up inching him out. I think it was 15-14.5. That’s what he does. He plays hard. He blocks shots. The offensive rebounds he got were big. He can turn a game around. He did it for us against Grand Canyon. Without Grant or Aiden Sherrell, we were a little thin in the frontcourt, and Mo was kind of a small-ball five, and I thought he did a really good job of it tonight.”

Oats on how much Dioubate needs plays like that to get on the floor…

“He’s gonna have to. We’re not gonna play him for his offense necessarily, although he’s capable. He hit the one three tonight. He can make some catch-and-shoot threes. But he’s gonna play for his effort and his defense, his rebounding. Just all the blue-collar stuff. He’s gotta do it to get on the floor, but he did it pretty well tonight.”

Oats on the atmosphere at Boutwell Auditorium…

“I liked it. I mean, shoot, for an exhibition game, I would much rather be in a place like this with 2,000 than have our arena half-full. So I thought it was great. Get up here in Birmingham, some people see us up here. I thought they did a really good job. 

“And it was great, our guys went to the children’s hospital this morning. We kind of team up with Children’s knowing that we were able to donate to them and make it for a good cause. I thought that was super cool, just to see those kids that are kind of going through it a little bit. Lulu was here. I went to see here in Charlotte, and she’s been going to Children’s to get her rehab done. She was in the front row, so just super cool. It’s for a good cause. It’s a great environment. I thought we gave the fans – hopefully, they all felt like they got their money’s worth here tonight.”

Oats on the different lineup combinations he was able to play…

“We didn’t have four of our guys, and we went with different lineups just trying to get a lot of guys minutes. We’ll continue to play different lineups to let us know what they each look like together. But you can go with the small lineup with Holloway and Labaron and Sears – and Labaron was great tonight. Sears was great. Labaron was great. Holloway was great. I thought our guards played really well. And then you can also go big. You can play small-ball five with either Jarin or Mo D. We tried to do a little bit of everything with some lineups tonight. We’ll go back and look at it.

“I mean, Sears was a +30. Now, he played a decent amount. I think you see Sears is trying to really play hard on the defensive end, and he’s way better on the defensive end this year than he was last year. And I think you saw it tonight, which was represented by +30 when he was in the game.”

Oats on getting ready for Memphis on Oct. 28…

“We’re gonna give our guys the weekend off. They can go watch Tennessee-Bama football. Hopefully, we can get a win there tomorrow. They’ll be off Sunday. They can get in, get their treatment. Then we’re gonna go hard throughout the week. We’ll give them one day during the week off and then we’ve got practice on the weekend to get ready for the Monday game. So just different. I mean, we’ll get a good 5-6 days of practice going into Memphis and try to clean up. There was a million things we’ve gotta get better at, but I thought the effort was really good tonight.”

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