Nate Oats details 'fixable' defensive issues following Mississippi State game

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 4 Alabama picked up another enormous road win on Wednesday night, beating No. 14 Mississippi State 88-84. It was an impressive performance and a notable win in a hostile environment, but wasn’t all perfect.

Mississippi State guard Josh Hubbard had a career high, scoring 38 points on 50 percent shooting from the floor. As a team, the Bulldogs shot 50 percent from the floor and scored 1.2 points per possession in the game, well above what Alabama would typically like to allow.

Speaking to the media on Friday afternoon ahead of the team’s Saturday matchup with Georgia, Alabama head coach Nate Oats addressed some of the defensive problems he saw on Wednesday night.

“They’re all fixable, I don’t think there’s anything we’re not capable of doing,” Oats said. “Our pick-and-roll defense wasn’t where we needed it to be. Hubbard was able to get threes off and able to get to the rim. The way we guard pick-and-rolls, those are the two things we’re never trying to give up. You shouldn’t be able to dribble off pick-and-roll and hit a three the way we’re guarding. You also shouldn’t be able to get downhill and score at the rim, and he was able to do both. Our pick-and-roll defense wasn’t where it needed to be. Our transition defense has been a little bit of an issue off and on throughout of the year, and it was a little bit of an issue this game.”

Hubbard was the main beneficiary of Alabama’s subpar ball screen defense in the game in Starkville, pulling up from deep when a Tide defender lazily went under a screen and speeding to the rim whenever a big wasn’t in proper position.

It will be interesting to see what kind of ball screen coverages Alabama plays moving forward, struggling to be in correct position playing a hedge against Mississippi State, but having different difficulties playing drop coverage at other points this season.

Oats also thought the Tide’s help-side defense was lacking throughout the game, leading to a number of open looks in the paint due to poor rotations.

“I also thought our help defense, we got a little too locked into some weakside actions instead of getting our help over where it needed to be,” Oats said. “We’ve got to clean that up. We kind of call it our shell, if you will, you kind of base thing. You’ve got to go through all these actions you want to guard, but having your help there trumps all the actions you’re guarding on the weakside. You saw it multiple times where guys got free, whether it’s pick-and-roll or driving down the lane, we didn’t get our help over there in time. Those are some of the bigger areas that Mississippi State exposed.”

Though there are issues to fix, Alabama’s defense hasn’t been bad overall this season. Per KenPom’s defensive efficiency metric, the Tide ranks No. 45 nationally, allowing 98.2 points per 100 possessions. That’s a solid enough number, but Oats has stated plenty of times that he believes this team can be better than it’s shown defensively.

The next step towards showing that potential will be tomorrow’s game against Georgia, a team who will test Alabama’s interior defense with a dominant inside game.

“Going into Georgia, our post defense has to be elite,” Oats said. “We’ve had that exposed in different games as well this year.”

Not a member, Alabama fans? Join BOL today!

Have you subscribed to BamaOnLine.com yet? You can sign up for ONE MONTH of premium access to our Alabama coverage for just $11.99! Be able to read all of BOL’s premium articles and nuggets covering Alabama sports and recruiting and also join thousands of other Crimson Tide fans around the globe on the BOL Round Table message board! CLICK HERE!