What Alabama coach Nate Oats said about facing Dalton Knecht, No. 6 Tennessee

What head coach Nate Oats said Friday while previewing Alabama (12-5, 4-0 SEC) at No. 6 Tennessee (13-4, 3-1) on Saturday (2 p.m. Eastern Time, ESPN2) at Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville:

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 going to have any chance to win the SEC, we’ve got to play well here in these two games. It’s not easy to win at 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 got one (SEC) loss and we don’t have a loss. And Auburn is undefeated as well, so we’re going to have to play well. 

“(Tennessee does) 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 league last year and this was one of the two, (it) was up there. So it’s our guys 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 going have to obviously guard all and (Dalton) Knecht, I mean, he’s put on quite a show here these last three games. He’s had three straight games over 28 (points), which is scoring at a high level. And back to back 35-point games, or 35-plus. 

“So the issue is if you focus your entire defense on him, they’ve got other really good players. I mean, (Santiago) Vescovi, he’s 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. (Jonas) Aidoo can score it. (Josiah-Jordan) James is playing 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 is scoring the ball at the high clip right now.”

How Alabama’s Mark Sears is dealing with what Oats described as a “tweaked” ankle

“You know what, he’s been able to fully practice these last two days. He is not a hundred percent, but we haven’t held him out of anything in practice. So it’s progressing every day. So hopefully he is 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 a hundred percent.”

Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler having one of the best assist rates in college basketball 

“(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 has been causing defenses in this league problems since he got there as a freshman, so it’s no surprise that he is at the top this year. But we got to do a good job trying to keep the ball out of the lane with him. He’s just, I mean, he’s a little water bug. He’s quick. He gets it and he goes in transition. He’s made them a lot faster team since he’s gotten there. And 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.”

What Alabama learned in its other three games against top-ten teams — Purdue, Creighton and Arizona — away from home

“I mean, 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 75% or greater winning percentage. How they do that, whatever. And we coughed them up. So if we’re fortunate enough, Tennessee, when we’ve 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. So if we were fortunate enough to get a lead, hopefully our guys have learned a little better how to hold it. And then they’re going to know they’re going to have to compete for 40 minutes. You can’t come out — 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 possessions, the whole game. You 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.”

Mark Sears hitting a lull in SEC play last season, the challenge for him to sustain his success this season

“He’s been through a year of SEC play. I think he feels more comfortable and he is leading the league in scoring, but we’re also moving the ball around and sharing it pretty well too. So kinda like I said with Dalton (Knecht) it’s hard to just focus on him because they got a lot of other really good players. We’ve got the same issue. If you wanna put all of your focus on Mark, Aaron (Estrada) can go get you 20 any given night. Rylan (Griffen) can get you 20, 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 (Latrell) Wrightsell and Rylan have been here lately— I think it’s hard for a team to just completely focus on Sears and I think the better he passes it 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 is able to get rid of it and make them pay for trying to trap him. He got stuck in some traps against Missouri. I think if teams start to do that, I think he’ll be better. I think he realizes he’s got to get the ball out his hands a little bit quicker on some of that type of stuff.”

What impresses him about Tennessee’s Dalton Knecht

“Dalton, shoot, he’s got size, he’s athletic, he shoots it really well, so you gotta be right there on the catch, otherwise he’s getting it off. He gets his shot off quick and can shoot over the top of smaller guards and they’ve done a good job. I mean, they’re playing a little bit — there’s some similar stuff on offense, but they’re playing to Dalton’s strengths a little bit and he’s coming off some of those wide-pins and some floppies and they’re putting him 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 ’em a little bit ’cause he’s got size and teams would want to guard him with a guard the way he shoots it. But if you’re 6-foot-7, do you want to switch? Do you want to put your small guards on him? They put you in a quandary. I think Coach Barnes has done a really good job utilizing what Dalton does well.”

How he’s seen Tennessee center Jonas Aidoo develop over the last three seasons

“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, you know, kind of that mid-range shot while he’s also, you know, can score in the post, he deep seals you. His passing’s improved. He helps him a lot and he’s big. He’s got real size in there. They’re one of the few teams in the country that are really good on offense and defense. We gotta get our defense better and they’re number two in the 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, you know, particularly on defense. He kinda anchors the whole deal back there. And then on offense, he’s gotten a lot better and he’s playing well for them.”