Nate Oats explains why Alabama has struggled offensively vs. Tennessee in recent meetings

Saturday afternoon’s game between No. 6 Alabama and No. 5 Tennessee will be an old fashioned contrast of styles, the cliché unstoppable force meeting an immovable object.

Alabama enters the game with the top scoring offense in the country, scoring over 91 points per game, and one of the top three most efficient offenses in the country per multiple analytics services. Tennessee enters the game with the No. 1 defensive efficiency rating in the country, and playing roughly 11 possessions per game slower than Alabama.

“They’re good, they’ve got the No. 1 defense in the country,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said of the Volunteers during his Friday press conference. “They’re tough, they’re physical. We’re gonna have to handle their physicality here a lot better than we did last year and take care of the ball. It’s a typical Tennessee team since I’ve been in the league.”

Oats holds a 3-4 record against Tennessee entering Saturday’s game, having lost the last three meetings to the Vols, including a sweep last season. Though he has multiple wins against Tennessee, his teams have continually struggled offensively compared to what they typically average.

Alabama has been held under 75 points in all seven meetings with Tennessee under Oats.

“I didn’t realize that stat, but it’s not shocking,” Oats said. “They’ve done a really good job with us. The games we’ve won hasn’t necessarily been high-scoring affairs. They’re physical, they get into you. They make cutting hard, they guard the ball well. We like to get in the paint, draw help, spray the ball. They don’t necessarily need help all the time because they’re so physical on the ball. Then our off-ball cutting, they kind of stand you up. They have the No. 1 defense in the country this year and they’re usually top five every year.”

Alabama has been an elite offensive team this year, and done so in a multitude of ways. It all starts with guard Mark Sears, who is second in the SEC in scoring at 19.0 points per game. The Tide has four other players averaging double figures, including Aden Holloway (12.0), Grant Nelson (12.0), Chris Youngblood (10.6) and Labaron Philon (10.4).

Though Alabama is a food 3-point shooting team, shooting 35.0 percent from deep on the season, it’s most efficient production comes on the interior. The Tide ranks first nationally shooting 60.7 percent inside the arc as a team, and is top-20 in offensive rebounding rate.

“I’m really impressed with them as offensive rebounders,” Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said ahead of the matchup. “And I look at how they play, we know that Nate has done a tremendous job with his style of implementing what he wants to get done and got his players buying into their roles. And I’m just impressed with the consistency in which they’ve played the last couple years since he’s been there, and the fact that they know what they’re looking for. And he’ll tweak some things here or there, but he has stayed true to what he believes.”

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