Nate Oats previews Alabama's road game at No. 6 Tennessee

The Alabama men’s basketball team will face a top-10 team for the fourth time this year when it takes on No. 6 Tennessee on Saturday, Jan. 20, in Knoxville (1 p.m. CT on ESPN2).

The Crimson Tide-Volunteers matchup will feature the two highest-ranked SEC teams in the NCAA’s NET rankings, with Alabama (12-5, 4-0 SEC) ranked No. 5 and Tennessee (13-4, 3-1) right behind it at No. 6. It will also highlight two of the best players in the conference as Mark Sears and UT’s Dalton Knecht were both named to the John R. Wooden Award midseason watch list while also splitting SEC Player of the Week honors last week. 

Alabama enters the matchup at Thompson-Boling Arena riding a six-game win streak, including four consecutive SEC wins. The Crimson Tide will look to start 5-0 in league play for the third time under Nate Oats, including the first back-to-back instance in UA history.

Below are highlights from Oats’ press conference plus notes to know on both teams, via UA.

Oats’ opening statement… 

“It’s a big stretch here for us with Tennessee and Auburn back-to-back. I mean, those are two of the top teams in the SEC. If we’re gonna have a chance of winning the SEC, we’ve got to play well here in these two games. It’s not easy to win in Tennessee. I think they’ve only lost five times at home in the last four years, so it’s a tough place to play. They’re a very good team, one of the best teams in the country and we’re both playing for a conference championship. They’ve got one loss, we don’t have a loss and Auburn is undefeated, as well. So we’re gonna have to play well.

“They do a good job turning people over. They’re super physical. We didn’t handle it well up there last year. We only had two losses in the league last year, and this was one of the two, was up there. And we’ve had an issue with turnovers. So we’ve got to do a good job taking care of the ball a lot better than what we have in the past, and we’re gonna have to obviously guard Dalton Knecht. He’s put on quite a show here these last three are games. I think he’s had three games of over 28, which scoring at a high level, back-to-back 35-point games, or 35-plus. 

“The issue is if you focus your entire defense on him, they’ve got other really good players. I mean, (Santiago) Vescovi is one of the best guards in the league. He’s been here. (Zakai) Zeigler is one of the best guards in the league. He’s been there. That dude can score it. (Josiah-Jordan) James has played well. They’ve got multiple guys that can score it. So it’s hard to just completely focus on Dalton, but you’ve got to focus on him because he’s scoring the ball at a high clip right now.”

Oats on Mark Sears’ progress after tweaking his ankle…

“He’s been able to fully practice these last two days. He’s not 100 percent, but we haven’t held him out of anything in practice. It’s progressing every day, so hopefully, he’s better tomorrow than he was today. But he’s the leading scorer in the SEC, so we’re going to play him if he’s anywhere close to 100 percent.”

Oats on Zakai Zeigler’s ability to distribute the ball…

“He’s so fast. He gets in the paint so frequently, and when he gets in there, he draws a crowd. And then he’s unselfish and makes the right reads and kicks it out or drops it off. He’s been causing defenses in this league problems since he got there as a freshman, so it’s no surprise that he’s at the top this year. But we’ve got to do a good job trying to keep the ball out of the lane with him. He’s a little waterbug. He’s quick. He gets it and he goes in transition. He’s made them a lot faster team since he’s gotten there. They put shooting around him and makes it even better for him with the way that they’ve been able to space the floor a little bit more with their shooting now.”

Oats on what he learned from previous road games vs. top 10 teams…

“Honestly, the biggest thing we learned in those three was that we were right there with all three of them for large parts of the game. Every one of those three games, we had at least a six-point lead in the second half and a 75 percent or greater winning percentage and we coughed them all. We played them away from Coleman, those other three. Only one of those was a true road game. So this would be a true road game, in conference. It’s a little bit different environment. 

“If we were fortunate enough to get a lead, hopefully our guys have learned a little better how to hold it. And they’re gonna know they’re gonna have to compete for 40 minutes. And it could go the other way. We might be down big and have come back, or if we’re up big or if it’s just tight, within a couple possession the whole game, you’ve got to play 40. You can’t play 28 or 32 and win these big games. It’s got to take a full effort from everybody for 40 minutes.”

Oats on his confidence in keeping Sears’ scoring consistent…

“He’s been through a year of SEC play. I think he feels more comfortable. He is leading the league in scoring, but we’re also moving the ball around and sharing it pretty well, too. So kind of like I said with Dalton, it’s hard to just focus on him because they’ve got a lot of other really good players. We’ve got the same issue. If you want to put all of your focus on Mark, Aaron (Estrada) can go get you 20 any given night. Rylan (Griffen) can get 20. (Latrell) Wrightsell can get you 20. Grant (Nelson) can go score. We’ve got other options that people have to focus on that are actually playing pretty well right now. 

“You look at how Wrightsell and Rylan have been here lately, I think it’s hard for teams to just completely focus on Sears. And I think the better he passes and makes the reads and helps his teammates get better, it’s going to open it up for him more because they really can’t put two guys on him all the time when he’s able to get rid of it and make them pay for trying to trap him. He got stuck in some traps against Missouri. If teams start to do that, I think he’ll be better. I think he realizes he’s gotta get the ball out of his hands a little bit quicker on some of that type of stuff.”

Oats on the team’s effort in practice…

“Obviously, (Mo) Dioubate plays really hard. That’s why he’s getting minutes because we needed to infuse some blue-collar toughness, and he’s about all that. I think some other guys are picking it up from him. Some other guys are starting to play harder, as well. I think Estrada has been playing really hard, tons of blue-collar stuff, and our bigs have typically played pretty hard. They just foul too much doing it. I think they’re learning how to guard without fouling, and Grant’s been able to be a little bit better. If Grant doesn’t foul as much, we can play him. I think we’re getting a little deeper with where we’re able to go, and if guys aren’t gonna play tough and hard and give us max effort, they’re just not going to be able play.”

Oats on the importance of Rylan Griffen’s strong play of late…

“I think in his last six games, he’s averaging almost 15 points and five rebounds over two assists. He’s really talented offensively. Guys go through struggles. I mean, even last year, Brandon Miller I thought was the best perimeter player in college basketball, for sure. But he struggled a little bit at the end of the year. It’s just it’s typical. You look at the best players in the country, they go through slumps, and Rylan wasn’t playing up to his potential early in the year like on offense. 

“We know how good a shooter he can be and how well he shoots it in practice at times, and it’s nice to see him start playing well in games. He’s definitely on an upswing, getting more confidence in his offensive game. And while that’s happening, his defense can’t slip, and I don’t think it has. And I think he realizes that. Our challenge to him was be the best two-way wing in the league,and he’s got a chance to be that.”

Oats on Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht, Jonas Aidoo…

“Dalton, shoot, he’s got sizem he’s athletic, he shoots it really well. So you’ve gotta be right there on the catch, otherwise he gets his shot off quick and can shoot over the top of smaller guards. And they’ve done a good job. They’re playing some similar stuff on offense, but they’re playing to Dalton’s strengths a little bit. He’s coming off some of those wide pins and some floppies, and they’re putting them in ball screens where he’s handling the ball screens with his size. So they’re using him in a lot of different ways, and they even post him a little bit because he’s got size and teams would want to guard him with a guard the way he shoots it. But if you’re a 6-7 post, do you want to switch? Do you want to put your small guards on him? They put you in a quandary. I think Coach (Rick) Barnes has done a really good job utilizing what Dalton does well. 

“Talking about Jonas, he’s just progressively gotten better every year. I mean, he looks like he’s more athletic, moves better. He’s able to knock down kind of that mid-range shot while he also can score it in the post, he deep seals you. His passing has improved. I mean, he helps them a lot. He’s big. He’s got real size in there. So I mean, they’re one of the few teams in the country that are really good on offense and defense. We’ve got to get our defense better. They’re No. 2 in a country in defense, and if they’re not top 20 in offense, they’re borderline top 20 in offense, and he’s a big part of both of that, particularly on defense. He kind of anchors the old deal back there, and then on offense, he’s gotten a lot better and he’s playing well for them.”

Oats on how Mo Wague is progressing in his recovery…

“With the injury, he can’t really practice. We’re trying to save him for games. So he hasn’t practiced much. So it’s a little bit harder when you can’t practice to be in-sync with everybody else for the games, but he’s kind of available as frontcourt depth when we need it. You know he’s gonna play hard. He’s just got this injury that we kind of have to deal with the rest of the year.”

NOTES TO KNOW

– Oats is 15-19 against AP top-25 opponents and 5-8 against top-10 opponents.

– Eight of last nine games in the series, including the past six, have been decided by single digits.

– Alabama has scored 1,534 points this season (90.2 ppg), the most any UA team has scored in the first 17 games of the season, surpassing last year’s team (1,434 points).

– Sears is one of three players in Division I and the only Power 5 player that has 330 points, 40 three-pointers, 60 assists and 65 rebounds this season. Sears ranks No. 1 in the SEC in scoring (19.6 ppg), No. 3 in field goal percentage (53.3), and No. 10 in assists (3.7 apg).

ABOUT TENNESSEE

– Over the last four seasons, since 2020-21, the Volunteers are 51-5 (.911) on their home court.

– Similar to Alabama’s non-conference schedule, Tennessee had three straight losses to AP Top-25 opponents (vs. No. 2 Purdue, vs. No. 1 Kansas and at No. 17 North Carolina).

– Knecht is coming off back-to-back, 35-plus point games, scoring 36 at Georgia (Jan. 13) and 39 against Florida (Jan. 16). Knecht is the first SEC player with 28-plus points in three consecutive games in over three years, dating back to LSU’s Cameron Thomas doing so from Dec. 26, 2020, to Jan. 2, 2021. The last player Rick Barnes coached who had 35-plus three times in a season was Kevin Durant, who hit that mark four times in 2006-07.

– Tennessee is limiting opponents to 37.4 percent from the field, which ranks No. 5 in Division I.

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