Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's win at Mississippi State

The Alabama men’s basketball team defeated Mississippi State, 82-74, on Saturday night in Starkville, Miss. After the game, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters in the visiting locker room at Humphrey Coliseum. Below is everything Oats said after Alabama won its fifth game in a row and advanced to 11-5 (3-0 SEC) on the 2023-24 season.

Oats’ opening statement…

“This is a tough place to get a win. Coach Jans is one of the best coaches in the country coaching defense, toughness. This is one of the tougher teams. You saw what they did to Tennessee here last game. I think Tennessee is one of the tougher teams, and they out-toughed them for most of the game. So for us to come in here and get a big win, I thought we had some guys really step up defensively. 

“I thought Trelly was one of them. I thought Grant Nelson’s defense inside on Tolu was huge for us. Rylan started to come around, really guard and play well. Obviously, it was not one of our better offensive games, but it’s good to win on the road when you don’t play great on offense all the time.

“We made free throws, too. Our four guards went 16-of-16 at the free-throw line. Between Trelly, Rylan, Mark and Aaron, they didn’t miss a free throw. A lot of positives. We had them out-rebounded for most of the game, ended up losing by one, but for a team that rebounds it as well as they did, I thought we did a pretty good job for most of the game.”

Oats on the toughness he saw from his team…

“We had more offensive rebounds than they did in the first half. I think we had six, they had three. Mo Dioubate came in and got three of them in limited minutes in the first half. I thought Grant Nelson’s defense on Tolu Smith – Grant ends up with three blocks, three steals, made some tough plays inside. I thought we had some tough drives. Rylan Griffen played really well, got downhill, finished at the rim well. Aaron Estrada with some strips inside, big steals. 

“Different ways when we needed stops, we were able to get them. They had some tough rebounds. We saw it show up in different ways. We chart the blue-collar points, like kind of effort stuff, and we had us with I think like 16 more than they did, and this is a team that’s as hard playing as anybody in the country. I told them if we can beat in the blue-collar stuff, we’d have a good chance to beat them in the game because that’s really what they hang their hat on. 

“Now, they’ve got some skilled players, too, and we didn’t do a great job all the time with all of them. But I thought we played harder than a hard-playing team. I thought our guys answered the bell when I challenged them to do that.”

Oats on Grant Nelson’s defense on Tolu Smith…

“He was great. He used his length. He stood him up. He was able to do it without fouling him much. We benefitted by Tolu missing some free throws tonight, but I thought Grant’s defense was as good on him as anybody’s. I think Grant showed he can be that kind of spacing five for us when we need him to because he can cause problems on the offensive end with his skillset.”

Oats on where the confidence level is at after five straight wins…

“It’s coming. I want it to come on the defensive end with the toughness. That’s starting to really come. Offensively, we haven’t been great. We still had too many turnovers, only nine assists, 13 turnovers. But we’re getting into league play where teams know you better, know how you want to play, so your defense is going to have to carry you. I’ve been telling these guys this. As good an offense as we have – it may still be the No. 1 offense in the country. I’m not sure where we stand after the game tonight. But as good an offense as we have, if your defense doesn’t get significantly better, you’re not going to win these tough games. Our defense was definitely better tonight than it’s been.”

Oats on having a veteran like Wrightsell be your sixth man…

“I think we’ve got one of the deepest, best backcourts in the country, if not the best. Latrell Wrightsell coming off the bench, capable of scoring 20 any given night. Great defender. We kind of went with those four guards a lot. We put him, kind of played Rylan at the four. Rylan’s got some length, showed some toughness. Rylan’s an unbelievable teammate.

“Rylan knows that he’s a little smaller four. When we need to get rebounds, he’s coming over to me, ‘Who should we get in for me? We’ve got to get a rebound.’ I told him I love it. It’s super unselfish. Not trying to just hog up minutes, he’s trying to win. I told him it would be nice if he could become a better rebounder so we could keep him in there. But he’s super unselfish. He’s smart, and he’s a winner. These guys have all turned into just being about winning, so it makes it a little easier to coach these guys.”

Oats on what he saw from Mo Wague…

“We’ve just got to monitor his foot. He wasn’t really able to practice. He went through the walk-through today, and it felt good, so we let him go. And we needed those minutes. Yeah, he ended up with just under 10 minutes. He had four points, and we needed every point we could get. Two rebounds, we needed his depth. When Pringle is in foul trouble, we need him. Yeah, he was big for us.”

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