Nate Oats analyzes Alabama's best lineup combinations this season

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Through 11 games this season, Alabama’s starting lineup has been a revolving door.

Because of a season-ending injury to Latrell Wrightsell as well as the additions of Houston Mallette coming off his redshirt and Chris Youngblood coming back from his own injury, head coach Nate Oats has started five different units already this year.

The in-and-out of various players has caused a lack of continuity as non-conference play draws near to its end. Ahead of the Crimson Tide’s final two games of non-conference play, two buy games in Coleman Coliseum, Oats was asked which lineup combinations had been the best so far this season.

“I know that the 4-person lineup analysis with Mark [Sears], Labaron [Philon], Grant [Nelson] and Cliff [Omoruyi] is really high on both sides of the ball,” Oats said.

Those four players have started the majority of games this season, and when Oats was asked about the starting lineup specifically last week, he said those four would be in it most games.

Philon didn’t start the game against North Dakota on Wednesday, but Oats said that was not a matchup-related move.

 “That wasn’t a basketball decision,” Oats said. “That was an off-the-court, minor deal where he just has to clean some stuff up. There was no Xs and Os decision on that one.”

Knowing that, it’s safe to assume Philon will be back in the starting lineup along with the rest of those four players Oats mentioned.

As for the fifth spot, it’s unclear. Alabama uses analytics to track the efficiency of its lineups, and with Mallette and Youngblood having only played in a few games each so far this season, there isn’t a large enough sample size to see if they’ve been the most optimal compared to other options.

“We’ve got to figure out – I don’t know exactly what the best 5-person lineup is. We don’t have a ton of reps, different guys have been in, Derrion [Reid], Jarin [Stevenson],” Oats said. “Whether we go with the guards, Wrightsell is out for the year. Houston doesn’t have very many reps in there, so the sample size in 5-person lineups isn’t huge. We do know the one 4-person lineup is pretty strong on both sides of the ball. We’ve got to continue to get those four guys playing harder, better, and figure out who that fifth guy in there is. Is it gonna be CY, Jarin, Derrion? And we may not end up starting our five best guys, but can we get the best 5-man lineup in the game together enough, particularly in the second half when it’s coming down to winning time?”

Stevenson has started in seven games for Alabama this season, five of them at the three spot. He didn’t shoot the ball well offensively to start the season, but his length at 6-foot-10 provides a nice look for Alabama defensively, and the analytics have agreed.

“I also know Jarin Stevenson, who we’ve been putting in the starting lineup, has a really high defensive leverage himself,” Oats said. “He hasn’t shot the ball through the course of the season like he’s capable of, but some games he has. He was 7-of-9 from three over the course of a couple games. He’s been up there on the defensive side.”

Alabama has a number of options at play for both the final spot in the starting lineup, as well as the trimmed-down rotation once the team gets to conference play. It’s clear Stevenson has been a plus-defender, while Reid has also shown plenty of defensive flashes. Mallette and Youngblood provide shooting help, which could be needed as the team is below 32 percent from beyond the arc this season.

But Oats still wants to use these last two non-conference games to gather more data.

“We’ve got all the data, we’ll probably take a hard look at it right after all the non-conference games are done,” Oats said.

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