Nate Oats challenges Alabama's young players before first road game
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 2 Alabama basketball has started the season 3-0, but all three wins have come in the safe and familiar confines of Coleman Coliseum.
The Crimson Tide will venture out of its home arena on Friday, heading north to take on No. 13 Purdue on the road. Mackey Arena, the home of the Boilermakers, has been one of the best home environments in college basketball for a number of years as Purdue has been one of the top programs in the country in recent memory.
It will be the first road trip for this season as a unit, and the first time three of Alabama’s freshmen contributors in Labaron Philon, Derrion Reid, and Aiden Sherrell have ever played a road game in their college careers.
While preparing his team for this game, head coach Nate Oats challenged his players to embrace the difficult environment they’re about to face.
“We tell them the environment’s gonna be great. We know it,” Oats said. “I also told them this morning in video, the toughest competitors I’ve ever coached have been at their best in the toughest environments. Referenced Brandon Miller in South Carolina a couple years ago. Look at our guys that have played well at Auburn, our guys that have played well on the road at – look at what Clowney did late against Arkansas, what Brandon did late against them. If you want to be a competitor, it’s a lot easier to be a frontrunner and look great at home when the crowd’s behind you. The real competitors show up on the road.”
This game against Purdue isn’t the only time Alabama will face a tough road environment, either. Of course, Alabama has to travel to the likes of Auburn, Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and more in SEC play, but the non-conference schedule is filled with tough road games as well.
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The Crimson Tide’s next home game won’t be until Dec. 14, and there are only three true home games left for this team until SEC play starts in January. The schedule still includes true road games at North Carolina and North Dakota, with a number of neutral site games also included.
“I think I saw at stat somewhere. In the five years we’ve been in the SEC, our strength of schedule has been third, second, first, first, first,” Oats said. “We want to schedule tough, we want to test ourselves against the best teams in the country, see where we’ve got weaknesses, and get our weaknesses better before conference play. Part of that, is you’ve got to go on the road.”
While Oats wants to test his team, and going on the road is necessary to do that, he said a huge factor in the number of road games is how the scheduling agreements have to work in order to play high-major opponents.
“I don’t know if that’s an emphasis, but that’s the way it worked out with how many home games we try to get,” Oats said. “We have the three right out of the gate. We want good games, you want some neutrals. We have Creighton at home, if you want good home games, these high majors aren’t getting bought, you’ve got to set up home and away. Purdue’s coming back down here next year, Creighton we went there, they’re coming back. We’re trying to get those teams to come to our place, we’ve got to go to their place.”
