Nate Oats explains key to maintaining tempo against slow-paced Houston
It’s no secret that Nate Oats-coached Alabama teams love to get up and down the floor with a ton of pace. Through three weeks of the 2024-25 season, the Crimson Tide ranks 7th nationally in adjusted tempo, per KenPom.
No. 9 Alabama’s opponent on Tuesday, Houston, is the exact opposite. The Cougars rank 347th out of 364 teams in college basketball in adjusted tempo, a polar opposite in playstyle to what Alabama prefers.
The clash of styles means the game can go in two directions. Either Alabama is able to push the pace and make Houston play catch-up, or the Cougars are able to slow it down and make the Tide play their grind-it-out type of game. In Alabama’s last game, a win over Illinois, it demonstrated how to impose its will on the game with the pace it played, and will aim to find a way to replicate that Tuesday.
Oats believes there’s one specific key to playing the way he desires against a team like Houston.
“We’ve got to run when we can. The biggest issue is can we defensive rebound? They’re sending everybody to the offensive glass, so if we can get defensive rebounds, we’ll be able to run on them,” Oats said. “As much as we can we’ll try to run off misses, we’ll run off makes. Our defense has to be great, our defensive rebounding’s got to be great, and then we’ve just got to take care of the ball on offense.”
The Tide’s defensive rebounding has been an area of concern for Oats in the last few games, giving up 14 offensive rebounds against Illinois and 10 against Purdue. Alabama has a size advantage over Houston, though, starting two players listed at 6-foot-11 in Grant Nelson and Cliff Omoruyi while Houston’s tallest starter is listed at 6-foot-8.
Alabama can’t control whenever Houston wants to slow it down offensively, but where the fast-paced transition opportunities come are off securing defensive rebounds after getting stops.
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“They’re gonna take their time on offense and we don’t really do anything about that, we’ve just got to guard them, box out, limit them to one shot,” Oats said. “If they want to take 20 seconds, that’s their prerogative. We’ll put the appropriate ball pressure on, but we’re not gonna start gambling and trapping to try to speed the game up and give up wide open shots.”
When Alabama is on offense and isn’t able to run in transition, Oats said moving the ball properly and unselfishly will be vital.
“I think that if you attack Houston correctly, the ball moves,” Oats said. “You can’t be selfish and beat these guys, they’re gonna put two on the ball, take your best guards out of it by blitzing them. The ball’s got to move. If the ball moves, typically you’ve got multiple guys scoring because it finds different guys. If you play the way you need to play to beat these guys, the ball’s gonna move and you’re gonna have multiple guys scoring the ball pretty well.”
Oats and Houston coach Kelvin Sampson have met twice in recent seasons, with Alabama sweeping a home-and-home series in the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons. Both of those games were decided by six points or less, and tomorrow night’s top-10 tilt could very well be more of the same.
