Nate Oats looking for Aden Holloway to take more open shots
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The best available shooter on the Alabama team this year has been Aden Holloway, and it’s not particularly close, either.
Holloway transferred in after a lackluster freshman season at Auburn, where the former 5-star prospect struggled to get anything going from beyond the arc. He finished the season shooting 30.2 percent from deep on over five attempts per game. This year, that 3-point percentage has jumped to 41.9 percent, the best on the team outside of Latrell Wrightsell, who was lost for the year to injury in November.
In fact, Holloway is the only player on the team shooting over 40 percent, with Chris Youngblood and Mark Sears being the next-closest at 36 and 35 percent, respectively.
Last time out, Holloway scored 19 points in the home win over No. 17 Kentucky. He shot 12 threes in the process, making five of them. That many 3-point attempts was well above his season average of 5.7, but Nate Oats actually said on Monday that he wants Holloway to take even more threes.
“I think there’s open shots that he’s passing up that we don’t want him to pass up,” Oats said. “He took 12, could have got even more. I’m thinking of one in my head that he should have shot. Yes, we need to get him more threes. We need to get him more open threes. He needs to take more open threes. He doesn’t miss hardly any. The more open shots we can get him, the better off our offense is gonna be.”
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If there’s one thing Oats hates, it’s players passing up open shots. He gets much more upset about that than he does a player shooting a ‘bad’ shot.
Holloway has taken double-digit 3-point attempts in three games this year, including a game back in December against South Dakota State where he took a career-high 19. That game seemed to unlock a new level of confidence within him, and he’s shot close to 50 percent from three since that game.
In addition to Holloway, Oats simply wants to find more open shots for his best shooters across the board. Mark Sears leads the team with 184 attempts from deep on the year, followed by Holloway (155) and Chris Youngblood (97).
“The more open shots we can get Sears, Youngblood, same deal,” Oats said. “It’s part of why we put Labaron in the starting lineup, in order to get Sears off the ball more, get CY some open shots. When we’ve got Sears and Holloway in there together, they both can create for each other. If Labaron’s in there, obviously that would help. We want (Holloway) to get as many open threes as he can get.”
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