How did Alabama basketball get so good, so fast (and how can they be beaten)

Over the last few weeks, it feels like I’ve turned into college basketball’s “Dear Abby.”

(For anyone under the age of 35, “Dear Abby” was an advice column that ran in newspapers across the country years ago. Also, for anyone under the age of 35, “newspapers” were… well you know what, that’s a story for another day).

Anyway, back to the Dear Abby stuff, where it seems like I am getting all sorts of questions, and being asked to make sense of a lot of bizarre storylines in a truly bizarre season. In previous weeks I addressed what’s wrong with Kentucky and whether it can be fixed, and last week, I answered the question that will plague anthropologists for centuries to come: How does Will Wade still have a job?

Well, with Kentucky set to travel to Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Tuesday, I’ve decided to answer another question I’ve gotten a lot recently. That question: “How the heck did Alabama basketball get so good, so fast.” Incredibly, a program whose glory days date back to the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, with a dabble of Antonio McDyess, Mo Williams and Collin Sexton mixed in since, is all of a sudden a college basketball power. Since SEC play started they are 8-0 with wins at Rupp Arena and Thompson-Boling Arena, a 30-point beat down of LSU and 29-point win of Arkansas.

So how the heck did Alabama get so good, so fast? Let’s take a look at how it happened:

They hired the right coach

I’ll be the first to admit that when Alabama fired Avery Johnson in the spring of 2019, I kind of scratched my head and said “Huh? What are they doing?”

Or maybe better yet I scratched my head and said, “Who do they think they are?” This is Alabama basketball we’re talking about here. And Avery Johnson had been fine as their head coach, leading them to an NCAA Tournament in 2018 (in Sexton and John Petty’s freshman year) and an NIT run in 2019. I was always under the impression that one NCAA Tournament in four years would get you a statue built in Tuscaloosa. Not a pink slip.

Then, a few days later Alabama hired Nate Oats.

And boy oh boy did my attitude change.

Me, looking at myself in the mirror after saying that I thought Alabama should have never fired Avery Johnson… only to see them hire Nate Oats cc: @RyanCFowler @CecilHurt @Nic_Gulas pic.twitter.com/JqD2RQ5PsZ

— Aaron Torres (@Aaron_Torres) March 27, 2019

By now, Oats’ story has been documented many times over, but it doesn’t make his meteoric rise the last decade any less incredible. Oats was a high school coach as recently as 2013, then, after Rhode Island (coached then by Dan Hurley) recruited one of his players, he was hired by Dan Hurley’s brother Bobby Hurley at Buffalo a short time later. After two years as Hurley’s lead assistant, Oats was named the team’s head coach.

And after a few tough years, Oats got Buffalo rolling in a big way.

By year three, the team went 26-8 in the regular season and advanced to the NCAA Tournament – where they were matched up with arguably the hottest team in college basketball at that point, the Arizona Wildcats. That was the first year the Wildcats were dealing with all their FBI stuff but had straightened things out by the end of the season. Led by DeAndre Ayton, Rawle Alkins and Allonzo Trier, they steamrolled through the Pac-12 Tournament. Many (myself included) thought they could win the whole thing, even as a four seed.

That is, at least until they played Oats’ Buffalo team in Round 1 and were promptly run out of the gym. The Bulls won by 19 in a game that wasn’t really all that close. And it was really after that game that Oats first made a name for himself nationally, as the swaggy, confident guy we see today. Following the game, in a spot where many mid-major coaches play the “Aww shucks, we’re just happy to be here” card, Oats did the exact opposite.

He basically said that he expected to win, because he thought he had the better team.

Here’s a clip.

Buffalo Head Coach Nate Oats wants America to know that Arizona wasn't ready for that ass whooping, SportsCenter literally cut away because he was bragging too much Hahaha #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/jQnsvzbZQI

— Brandon Radcliffe (@BrandonWhatsill) March 16, 2018

The following year it only got better. Buffalo essentially returned its entire roster off that NCAA Tournament team, went 31-3 in the regular season and advanced to the second round of Big Dance for a second straight year. They ended up losing, but it was to Texas Tech, who ended up playing for the national title that same season.

A few weeks later, Oats was headed to Alabama, as a clear and definitive upgrade over Avery Johnson.

The Tide had one of the bright young coaches in college hoops.

They defined their style of play early 

Much like Oats’ rise from high school coach to the SEC, Oats’ preferred style of play has been well-documented at this point. He wants to play fast, and essentially take all his shots either from beyond the three-point line or at the rim. Taking long two points shots is a sin punishable by death in Oats’ system.

Ok, that last part was an exaggeration. But not by much.

Anyway, it’s a style that Oats has largely had dating back to his high school days, and one that he fine tuned once he became the head coach at Buffalo. What Alabama is doing right now isn’t something new when Oats got to the SEC, but instead an extension of what started at his last stop. In his final two seasons with the Bulls, they finished in the Top 25 nationally in tempo both seasons (a stat which measures how fast a team plays). They also took the fifth most three-point attempts in college basketball in 2018 and sixth most in 2019.

And while it Alabama didn’t initially have the success Oats was expecting early (he told me last preseason he expected the Tide to be an NCAA Tournament team), he did establish that same exact “brand” in Tuscaloosa last season. In 2020, the Tide ranked fifth in the nation in three-point attempts, and took by far the most three-pointers of any Power 6 program. Thanks in large part to the emergence of Kira Lewis as an eventual lottery pick, they also finished third nationally in scoring behind only Gonzaga and Duke.

Put simply, there were too many defensive lapses last season to win as much as they should have (they allowed 80+ points in five of their final nine games of the regular season).

But the style of play and brand of the program had been established in Year 1.

There were good players already in the program

It’s no secret that even the best coaches need good players to win. And while the vast, vast, vast majority of Alabama’s current success goes to Oats, his staff and the current players, some should go to Avery Johnson too. He didn’t leave the cupboard bare when Oats arrived.

First off, there was Kira Lewis, who again, developed into a lottery pick in Oats system last year.

There were also three players who got a taste of the system last year and returned for one more season in 2021.

The first of course is the famed John Petty, a player who is in only his fourth year in college – even if it feels like he’s been there forever. The reason is simple: He was a highly-rated recruit who – unlike so many other players in this era – has actually stuck out his time in college. He started his career with Sexton way back in the 2017-2018 season (which admittedly feels like a lifetime ago) and then was part of the transition from the Johnson-to-Oats era in the spring of 2019.

In addition to Petty, Herb Jones and Alex Reese are also holdovers from the Johnson era and Jaden Shackleford is a guard who originally committed to Johnson before sticking things out under Oats.

Well, in terms of “how did Alabama get so good” this would be a good place to start. Petty, Shackleford and Jones are currently Alabama’s three leading scorers, a trio that is currently averaging a combined 40 points a game this season, with Petty shooting 42 percent from beyond the arc, and Jones a staggering 46 percent. Jones has also found a role as a defense/energy/glue guy, leading the team in both rebounds (5.7 per game) and steals (1.7).

Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good, and as good as Oats is, he was lucky to inherit some good pieces as well.

Some savvy recruiting outside those core players

When Oats got to the SEC, the biggest question mark surrounding his arrival was whether or not he’d be able to recruit relative to SEC heavyweights like John Calipari and Rick Barnes. At the Power 6 level there aren’t many programs who can simply take freshmen and develop them over time into serviceable players. Instead, in the modern era, it has to be a blend of recruiting high-caliber high school players, development and hitting the transfer portal to fill out an ever-evolving roster.

Looking at this roster, Oats has certainly done that.

In addition to the returnees, Alabama has a bunch of guys who’ve gotten to Alabama through a bunch of different paths. Starting point guard Jahvon Quinerly is a former McDonald’s All-American who began his career at Villanova, but never could get on the court in the Wildcats’ more constrained system. When Quinerly decided to transfer he wanted to find a place where he could play faster and freer and found a perfect home at Alabama, where he is currently averaging 12.5 points and 3.5 assists.

Another transfer who has seen big time this season (prior to an injury in a game at Kentucky) is big man Jordan Bruner, who is a grad transfer from Yale. And it’s kind of a wild story of how he ended up in Tuscaloosa. Bruner got injured early last season, and because the Ivy League doesn’t allow graduates to play sports, it was no secret that if he wanted to play college basketball this year, he would have to grad transfer. Alabama’s staff identified him early, and as soon as he hit the portal, Alabama’s staff called, and the rest is history. At 6’10 he is the perfect stretch five for this roster.

Beyond those two, there is freshman Joshua Primo, who the staff got to reclassify this off-season. He is averaging 41 percent from behind the arc so far this season. After scoring 22 points against LSU and another 16 against Mississippi State this weekend, he was named the SEC Freshman of the Week on Monday. Another Top 100 prospect Alex Tchikou reclassified but is out with injury this season.

Overall, the staff has done a great job of using all avenues – grad transfers, sit out transfers, freshmen, reclassifications – to fill out this roster.

(For those who want to learn more about how Oats put this Alabama team together, I encourage you to listen to his appearance on the “Aaron Torres Podcast” last spring)

How it all came together this year

Despite all of the above – the right coach, system and players – it still took a while for it to all come together. As a matter of fact, as recently as a month ago, there was no reason to think that Alabama is capable of what it has done in the SEC so far. At the time – again, just one month ago – the Tide were just 5-3 overall with league play set to begin, with losses to Stanford, Clemson and Western Kentucky in the non-conference.

Since then though, the Tide have been unstoppable. Part of it was that some kind of team turmoil brought this group closer together. Petty and forward James Rojas were suspended for the final non-conference game of the season and Petty even returned to his hometown during the cooling off period, before electing to return.

Whatever happened though, it has clearly changed everything around Alabama.

Some stylistic changes happened as well.

One, for the first time in the Oats era, the players committed on the defensive end. After all those 80+ points allowed games last season, the Tide are allowing opponents to score just 70 a game in SEC play this season. That number is a bit deceptive since they gave up 90 against Auburn, in a game where Sharife Cooper was cleared just hours before tip-off. Take out that game and they’re only allowing 67, and take out a 30-point win where they allowed LSU to put up points late (and score 75 overall) and they’re allowing 65 in their six other SEC games. That includes giving up just 59 to Arkansas, 63 to Tennessee and 65 to Kentucky when the teams first met.

On top of that, the team is also just flat out consistently shooting better than they were earlier in the season. Most notably, there was their SEC-record setting 23 three-pointers made against LSU, but they also went 15 of 36 against Arkansas (that’s nearly 42 percent) and 14 of 30 (46.7 percent) against Kentucky.

When your defense gets better and your shooting goes up at the same time, that makes you very, very tough to beat.

So what’s next and how do you beat them?

The crazy thing about Alabama’s success, is that they’ve largely already played the toughest part of their SEC schedule. The Tide were picked to finish fifth in the SEC this season, and have already beaten the teams picked to finish No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and 7. Yes, they still have second games against LSU, Kentucky, Auburn and Arkansas, but also have arguably the three worst teams in the SEC, Vanderbilt, Georgia and Texas A&M remaining on the schedule as well. There is no reason to think the Tide’s early success will slow down any time soon.

So with that in mind the next question is: How the heck does anybody beat the Tide? It won’t be easy, but weirdly of all teams, Mississippi State might’ve show the best pathway against Alabama on Saturday.

Because it wasn’t a marquee game a lot of people might’ve missed this one, but essentially all Mississippi State tried to do was muck up the game, and make Alabama play slow and ugly. Alabama took 68 shots against LSU, but just 61 against the Bulldogs – and simple math tells you fewer shots means fewer possessions, and less of a chance for a blowout. To its credit, Mississippi State also forced quite a few Alabama turnovers and outrebounded the Tide, a key with Bruner still out with injury.

Also, in what I think was actually a pretty smart move, they didn’t attempt to go shot for shot with Alabama. The Bulldogs attempted just 14 three-pointers all game compared to the Tide’s 34. That might seem counterintuitive, but I’ve seen far too many teams fall down early and feel like they can only get back into it is by jacking up a bunch of threes, which plays into Alabama’s hands. You can’t beat Alabama by playing their game. You have to beat them by playing yours.

In the end, to beat Alabama, I think it’s some combination of playing slow, controlling the boards and defending the three-point well.

But beating Alabama won’t be easy for Kentucky on Tuesday night, or anyone in the SEC.

Alabama has gotten really good, really fast.

And it doesn’t look like they’re slowing down anytime soon.