Nate Oats, Alabama players address challenge of managing minutes with deep roster

MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. — Alabama head coach Nate Oats has already made the claim himself that this the deepest basketball team he’s ever had.

They haven’t taken the court yet, but on paper, there’s a lot of validity to that claim. Alabama has brought in the No. 2 overall recruiting class alongside a very strong transfer portal class, on top of returning multiple starters from last year’s Final Four team, and preseason SEC player of the year Mark Sears as the cherry on top.

The Crimson Tide truly has 13 scholarship players that can fight for minutes. With that comes the great challenge of how to distribute those minutes. Who will start? Who will play more? Who will play less? All difficult questions to answer with so many capable players on the roster.

The reality is that with such a deep team, a lot of players won’t receive the minutes they necessarily want, or even that they deserve. Oats has been up front with the team about that throughout the offseason, telling them minutes will be greatly decided by what they do on the court.

“He’s talked about it a lot. We understand that it might not be the same amount of minutes we want, but we have to play hard for the increments we’re in. He talked about how we get 4-minute increments, and if we’re not playing hard for those 4-minute increments then they’ll decrease,” Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. said. “We have to step up our game. Minutes aren’t guaranteed. The minutes are gonna be tight, but competing every day in practice, that’s what makes it real fun.”

As Wrightsell said, the depth on the roster makes the competition level in practice heightened that much more. Alabama is already known for having difficult practices under Oats, but with this much talent on the floor now, the intensity has taken itself to another level.

“Every day is like an SEC Tournament game,” Sears said. “That’s how it feels. We’re competing, going at each other, trying to make each other better as well. We feel like iron sharpens iron, so we’re definitely getting better. We’re just focused on the effort plays and the blue-collar mentality.”

The Alabama backcourt specifically has a boatload of challengers for minutes.

Sears and Wrightsell are the presumed starting backcourt, as both were major players on last season’s team, but there are three extremely talented newcomers in the fold as well. USF transfer Chris Youngblood was set to be a primary contributor, but an ankle injury will keep him out until December.

That leaves Auburn transfer Aden Holloway, a sophomore and former 5-star recruit, and freshman Labaron Philon, a freshman and former 4-star recruit, who have brought the challenge to Sears and Wrightsell continually throughout the offseason.

“Aden has brought a lot of energy, same as Labaron. I really look at them two as guys that can have really good production off the bench, or wherever they come off as Oats sets the lineup,” Wrightsell said. “That doesn’t really matter. Really what matters is the energy they come in with every single day. They push me and Mark every day. They have great ability to shoot, to defend, to guard and they love the game. We’re in their playing 1s with us four guards every day. It’s been really fun since they came.”

When it comes to Oats’ philosophy for how he’s going to handle who plays more and who plays less, it’s going to come down to who’s performing better on the floor. Not who’s scoring more points when they’re on the floor, but who’s impacting winning the most.

“We keep telling them it’s not about points, this and that. It’s about what you do on the floor. So like, is our offensive efficiency better with you on the floor, is our defensive efficiency better with you on the floor,” Oats said. “We’re gonna try to reward effort, reward winning plays. There’s going to have to be some sacrifices made to win a championship. There’s some guys that even last year were big parts of what we’re doing that will have to take fewer minutes this year to build our depth. It’s more about what you do with your minutes than how many minutes you play.”

There’s perhaps no better example of that mentality than sophomore Mo Dioubate.

As a freshman last year, Dioubate played sparingly, averaging less than eight minutes per game and 2.9 points when he did get to play. Despite his lack of playing time, Dioubate’s number was called in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Grand Canyon, when Alabama was trailing late in the game to the 12-seed and at risk of being sent home early.

Dioubate entered the game and affected it on both ends of the floor, scoring nine points and helping Alabama get the win. Sears mentioned Dioubate specifically when asked about the minutes distribution, referencing his game against Grand Canyon as something the team regularly points to.

“Without him, we don’t go to the Final Four,” Sears said. “We just use that as a perfect example, you’ve got to be ready when your time is called.”

Last season, Alabama embraced the concept of “Mudita,” which means vicarious joy through someone else’s success. It was the team’s motto, so much so that it’s engraved on the team’s Final Four rings.

With how many players are capable of playing this season, that’s once again going to have to be the mindset. If the team properly embraces it, the sky is the limit for what this team can accomplish.

“We’re going to obviously keep coaching it, teaching it, talking about it, but there’s going to be plenty of games where a lot of the roster is not playing as many minutes as they want,” Oats said. “Just hopefully our character takes over and whatever is best for the team and let’s make sure we’re locked into doing what’s best for this team.”