Nate Oats remaining optimistic about Alabama's 3-point shooting entering SEC play

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Teams coached by Nate Oats notoriously take an incredibly high volume of 3-point shots, and that has stayed true throughout his six seasons at Alabama. This years’ team though, isn’t shooting the ball near the level of some Crimson Tide offenses in recent memory.

The volume is still high. Through 13 games of non-conference play, Alabama is attempting 50.8 percent of its field goal attempts from beyond the arc, which is the 8th-highest rate in the country. The unfortunate news is that the Tide is only making 31.7 percent of those threes to this point in the season, which is outside the top-250 nationally.

The shooting percentage has taken a hit for a number of reasons. Latrell Wrightsell, considered by many to be the team’s best shooter, tore his Achilles a month ago after starting the season shooting 42 percent from deep. Mark Sears, the other player with an argument for best shooter on the team, had an extremely uncharacteristic cold streak to start the year, shooting 28.8 percent from deep through the first month of the season.

The good news is that the shooting seems to be starting to trend upward, at least slightly. Sears seems to has found himself again throughout the month of December, shooting 41 percent over the past five games. Sears also takes a huge portion of Alabama’s total volume, being responsible for nearly 22 percent of the team’s total 3-point attempts, so as he continues to shoot better, the team’s splits should gradually increase as well.

Entering conference play, Oats has confidence that the percentages will keep trending upward, with the right adjustments.

“I think it will jump. I think Sears started out the year struggling and he’s improved quite a bit in the last month or so. I think he’s done a better job making sure he’s shot ready and taking good shots,” Oats said. “I think if our shooters take great shots, catch-and-shoots where they’re stepping in, and some of the other guys don’t take – some of our other shoots can take off-the-dribble ones but some of our guys need to strictly take catch-and-shoot threes. So, emphasizing the type of shots we want, and then emphasizing guys getting in the gym and putting up shots.

“Some guys like Sears reverting back to the mean, Youngblood, the more comfortable he gets, he’s been a proven shooter his entire career. I think once he gets healthy, he’ll help those numbers go up quite a bit, too.”

The struggles from Chris Youngblood have been another factor dragging down Alabama’s shooting percentage.

Youngblood missed the first month of the season with an ankle injury, and has only played in four games since his return. He’s a proven shooter with a career 39 percent clip across four seasons of college basketball, but has made just six of his 24 attempts this season, or 25 percent.

Getting Youngblood back to form is a high priority and would be a great help to the offense, and Oats believes he’s getting close.

“I think, every day that goes by he gets a little more comfortable, he gets a little more confident in his ankle and foot. A little more confidence in his conditioning,” Oats said. “It’s one of those deals, when he gets cleared he’s probably only at about 70 percent. You just got to work your way back into it. He’s getting better every day, I thought he’s looked better these last couple days of practice. We’re just gonna have to keep encouraging him, giving him confidence. We were hoping initially that he’d be at 100 percent by the start of conference play. He’s not there yet, but I don’t think he’s far off. I’m hoping in the next couple weeks he can get there.”

Alabama has some other quality shooters outside of Sears and Youngblood as well. Aden Holloway is shooting 37 percent on 81 attempts, by far the second-most on the team behind Sears. Houston Mallette is shooting 50 percent on the year on a very limit sample size, just coming off his redshirt a few games ago.

If those four shooters can take the majority of the attempts and make them quality looks, Alabama’s shooting should see a solid increase throughout conference play. The Crimson Tide offense currently ranks No. 4 nationally in offensive efficiency per KenPom despite the poor shooting, which tells you everything you need to know about the offensive potential with a higher 3-point clip.

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