Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's win over Morehead State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – No. 24 Alabama opened the 2023-24 season with a 105-73 win over the Morehead State Eagles on Monday night at Coleman Coliseum. After the 32-point victory, head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters. Below is everything Oats said after the first game.

Oats’ opening statement…

“I thought it was a great start to the season. We came out of the gate early. We’ve had issues with one of our scrimmages with how we started the game. I didn’t think we started great against TCU. We started well tonight, really jumped on them out of the gate. I was pleased with where our heads were at to start the game. I did think we had a little bit of a letdown at various points, but we were able to turn it back up. So there’s plenty of stuff we need to work on, particularly on the defensive end. But I thought we got the ball moving. We had 16 assists tonight, a few too many turnovers, but we were able to turn them over a little bit. And that’s a good team. They’re picked to win the Ohio Valley. They’ll be right in the mix for the Ohio Vally Championship. They won it last year. So it’s a good team with good players, and I thought our guys played well.

“We were able to play all 11 healthy scholarship guys double-digit minutes, which was nice in the first game. Some guys probably didn’t play as well as they’d like, but that’s how it’s going to go. I thought a few new guys, obviously, Grant (Nelson) played well. He was our leading scorer, rebounded and won the Hard Hat for the blue-collar, and I thought he was great, particularly in the second half. He didn’t have a rebound in the first half, ended up with seven in the second half. We kind of challenged our guys. We were down four on the glass at halftime, ended up out-rebounding them by 15 in the second half. So that was one area we really stressed at halftime. I thought Grant and (Nick) Pringle did a pretty good job themselves, coming out in the second half, rebounding the ball well.

“Thought Aaron (Estrada) and Mark (Sears) kind of got us going early, which was huge. I think the backcourt’s going to definitely be a strong suit of ours this year. I thought (Latrell) Wrightsell played hard. I thought Jarin Stevenson played really well there for a stretch in the second half. He showed everything he’s capable of in about a four-minute stretch with a tough finish at the rim, a couple threes he hit. I think he’s going to be huge for us this year. I think you saw enough of the pieces we have. Sam (Walters) didn’t make a three. He only got one. We’ve got to do a better job finding him because he shoots it really well. We’re working, getting him a little bit better defensively. He may come out and shoot 10 threes in a game, he can shoot it that well. I think we’ve got different pieces. You were able to see some of them tonight play well. As a collective whole, I was really happy with our effort, though.”

Oats on if this was the role, production he envisioned for Grant Nelson…

“I knew he was super skilled. Twenty-four and seven is pretty good. I think some games he may have a few more assists and get the ball moving, depending on how teams guard him. When we’re able to get him downhill, he finished at the rim pretty strong. He went 2-of-4 from three. That was a big question mark with him – can he shoot? He’s been in the gym a ton, working with Coach (Ryan) Pannone on his shooting. I think he’s shooting it really well. He’s shooting about 40 percent in all our live-action since he showed up this summer. So for him to go 2-of-4 was big just to kind of get his confidence up. If he can keep shooting him like that, teams are going to have to guard him. He can get the ball downhill and finish at the rim like he did. I envision him playing similarly to what he played tonight. Whether he gets 24 points every night or not, teams are going to guard him differently, he may end up with more like 12 or 15 but end up with six or seven assists because I think he can really pass the ball, too.”

Oats on Alabama’s entire freshman class…

“We’ve got five freshmen that all have a chance to be really good. Sam played great against TCU in our scrimmage. Davin (Cosby) just finally got healthy, so for him to get almost 15 minutes – he’d only been practicing about a week – I was happy with the three that he had. He can really shoot it, too, and he’s playing hard on defense. He gave us some good minutes. (Mouhamed) Dioubate is physical, tough driver and makes tough plays. I thought in his minutes – he got about 10 minutes, scored five with two rebounds. … If he would have made his free throws, he should have had eight points. So for his production in the amount of minutes he had was great. And Kris Parker is long, athletic. Trying to sell him a little on being like Herb Jones once we get him. And Jarin obviously played really well. Jarin’s got huge upside. I think you can all see, he’s got a lot of Noah Clowney in him. Knock down threes, put the ball on the floor, play on the perimeter at 6-10, finish tough at the rim. Got to get him a little bit better on defense – go block some shots, be a little more of a rim protector for us, especially on the help side. But he’s coming. For a kid that’s supposed to be a senior in high school, he was pretty good tonight in his first college game.”

Oats on the importance of Mark Sears to show the newcomers the ropes…

“It’s really important. When they started to make a run, make a comeback, we got him right back in the game to kind of steady the ship. In his first game kind of being the primary point guard since he’s been here, I think him and Aaron can split those threes a lot and Wrightsell can do it as well. And you saw we can have Grant bring the ball up the floor a lot. But having a guy that’s been in the system, knows how to play, knows how hard you have to play at this level, I think he was huge. And he’s been a lot more vocal lately, which is what we’ve been asking him to do.”

Oats on Nelson being the next guy after Herb Jones, Brandon Miller…

“It was great to have Brandon in. Shoot, he played last night in Dallas. I think they play on Wednesday next time. So for him to get an off day and decide to come from Charlotte to Tuscaloosa shows how much he loves this program, how invested he is in our program. It was great having him in there. He was in the locker room after the game. But yeah, Herb’s great in the NBA right now, Brandon’s leading all rookies in scoring right now in the NBA and  I think Grant will be in the NBA next year. I think he’s shown a skillset that the NBA wants at his size. I think he’s going to definitely be one of the best players in the SEC. It’s great that we’ve got him and he’s so versatile. You pair him together with the backcourt with Sears, Estrada. We’ve got some other guys, some shooters that we can put around him, too, that will really help. He’s kind of that versatile piece that we did have with Herb and Brandon.”

Oats on the first game with an entirely new coaching staff…

“It was good. Coach Pannone’s running the defense. He’s an incredible coach. I’ve got Coach (Austin) Claunch helping me and Coach (Adam) Bauman on the offense. Preston (Murphy) is in charge of the personnel matchups and brings a ton of energy and suggestions on both sides of the ball, substitutions and that stuff. We’re still finding a niche together, but I think all three of them are all about Alabama basketball, the team, getting our players better. I think the guys knows that. When the assistants are that invested in your player development, I think guys want to play a little harder for the staff. We’ll figure some more things out as we go through it, but it’s kind of learning each other. But it was a good first game together. I think it’s the first time Alabama has scored 100-plus in their opener since 2001 against Mississippi Valley State. I’m guessing Morehead State is a lot better than Mississippi Valley State in 2001, I don’t know. You guys can do that research. I thought it was a pretty good first game for us.”

Oats on the ability to get into transition for this year’s team…

“We need to get in transition more than we even did tonight. I think we did a good job. If we didn’t have the steals, we wouldn’t have been near as good as we needed to be in transition. A point of emphasis we’ve been making is trying to force more steals. You saw us up a little bit more, putting a little more pressure on. So I think our pace, hopefully our defense can push the pace a little bit more even for us. But we’ve got to get a lot better on defense, I’m just going to be honest with you. We weren’t where we need to be. We’re third in the country two out of the last three years. I’m looking at our defensive deal now. We gave up a 1.01. In conference play, we were low 0.9s in points per possession those years we were top three in the country in defense. I don’t want to be disrespectful. Morehead’s a very good mid-major team. I coached a Buffalo for four years. This is a team that you have to respect. They’re going to win a lot of games. But if we’re going to try to be 0.92, 0.93 in SEC play, you can’t be giving up a 1.01 to Morehead State. Now, we played a deep rotation. I gave everybody a chance. Some of these guys, if they don’t figure out how to guard, they’re not going to be playing when we play some high-major teams. So rotation will get shrunk as we move along, but our defense has to get much, much better.”

Oats on having a deep team when figuring out the rotation…

“It’s great. You look at some of the guys that played lower minutes, (Dioubate and Mohamed Wague), they’re both coming off surgeries, so they haven’t had as much time to acclimate themselves to our system, but those two guys are going to help us and they were the two lowest out of the 11 scholarship guys in minutes. The next two lowest guys were Davin and Sam, and those two guys can both go for 20 or 30 in a game because they can shoot it so well. You look at your four lowest guys, I don’t know how it’s going to get shrunk. I’ll tell you how it’s going to get shrunk – whoever wants to guard better is going to play more. So that’s how it’s going to get shrunk. But the guys that end up playing fewer minutes moving forward are going to be really good players that just can’t figure the defense out as much as they needed to. But if we have an injury, I think we’ll be able to withstand some injuries better. Two years ago, we weren’t nearly as deep and couldn’t hold guys accountable on the defensive end because we weren’t as deep and an injury hurts you a lot more. So this year, we’ve got an unbelievable trainer in Clarke (Holter), but injuries are a part of the game, and if we have one, I think some guys will be able to step up and we’re going to be to hold people more accountable to play hard on the defensive end.”

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