TUSCALOOSA — Alabama coach Nate Oatsspoke to reporters after the Crimson Tide’s 96-83 win over Kentucky on Saturday. Alabama bounced back after two defeats in a row to No. 1 Auburn and No. 15 Missouri.
Here’s what Oats said after the Tide’s victory.
Opening statement
“I thought our guys did a good job once we kind of dug ourselves a hole and you’ve gotta give Kentucky a ton of credit to come out like they did knowing they were down bodies and I think Coach Pope’s done a really great job galvanizing that crew, having them ready to go. You look at some guys that weren’t in the rotation earlier like Colin Chandler. They were plus-7 when he was in the game tonight. I thought he played great. He hit the big 3 late. Noa’s had big games. They’ve had multiple guys be able — Travis Perry steps up, scores double digits and he wasn’t playing that heavy before. So they’ve had guys step up and play well. Carr, we kinda chose not to guard him which we were supposed to guard him when he had the ball, just help off a lot more and he ends up burning us for three 3s. For him to have 17, I thought was pretty good too. So, I give them a bunch of credit.
“But, I thought our guys didn’t really panic when we get down 12. We just stick with it. We started getting stops. Our defensive efficiency numbers after that first four minutes. After the first four-minute media timeout the next 16 minutes of the first half we held them to a 0.8. They 24 points on the next 30 possessions. Defense from that point on was where it needed to be.
“We’re not starting better. I gotta go look at the video again, I thought we’d have a little bit better start. We’re still having turnover issues. We had 15 turnovers and only 14 assists. So, part of putting Labaron in the starting lineup was allowing Mark to get off the ball a little bit more like he’d done with Estrada last year. I thought it’s worked for Mark. He goes back-to-back 30-point games for the first time in his career and it’s been pretty efficient too. So, I think that made sense. We just need Labaron to stop turning it over as much as he is, and I thought Holloway, paring him a little bit more with Sears too, letting him create a little bit. Even though he didn’t have an assist he ended up scoring 19 off the bench. I thought he’s been good.
“Sears is playing the best basketball I thought he’s played since he’s been here on both sides of the ball. The one play with the bad turnover there late trying to get Cliff a lob. Which — not the smartest play. He apologized as soon as he came to the bench. He felt bad. But, I think he knew Cliff was one point shy of a double-double. He played so hard. He rebounded. He was trying to get him a bucket and turns around gets the steal, comes around hits the 3. His defensive effort’s been pretty good, best it’s been and I think offensively he’s been really efficient.
“Proud of the effort. Gotta clean up the turnovers, clean up the defense a little bit, but it was significantly better than the Missouri game.”
On frequent substitutions in the first few minutes and what message it sends
“It was more zero-tolerance for effort. And it wasn’t so much an effort thing. I basically said it was gonna be zero tolerance for effort. Scouting report scew ups, that’s a bigger thing. We put the scouting report in, it needs to be followed. You need to be locked in and forced on the right thing. And then just dumb turnovers. We just need to stop turning the ball over.
“I don’t know if it worked, but that’s the way that it’s gonna be moving forward. I’m tired of the guys being not locked into the scouting report. And it hasn’t been — I mean if you grade our effort levels 1-10, it’s not like you’ve got a 4,5,6, but there’s levels to this thing and we can’t be giving an 8 or a 9, we need a 10. So, we just gotta challenge the guys and I thought they responded well. Kinda got settled in there when we got down 12 and it was a little better after that.”
On if Alabama’s first-half defensive stretch was as good as he’s seen
“They scored 16 in the first four minutes. So they end up with 24 over the next 16 on 30 possessions. It as a 0.8. I’m looking at the from the 16 to 12, it was a 0.57, from the eight to four, it was a 0.4, and then we closed it with a 0.86. So there was one in the middle of those that was just a little suspect. But three out of those next four kind of four-minute wars, if you will, was as good as we’ve seen. And this is a good offensive team.
“Even with all the injuries and everything. I mean, Brea is one of the best shooters in the country. Carr is obviously really good. Amari Williams just had a triple-double not that long ago. They’re good. They got the fifth-rated offense in the country. So to do that for 16 minutes, or 12 of those 16, that was as good as we’ve seen.
“And that’s really what I want us focused on moving forward. Just get locked into the scouting report and play as hard as you can possibly play. Don’t turn the ball over on offense and let everything else fall where it goes. Making shots, missing shots. I’m not worried about it. I’m worried about the scouting report. Are you locked in mentally? Are you giving us max effort? And an eight out of 10 ain’t enough. It needs to be a 10 out of 10. And are you taking care of ball on offense? Those three things…
“I probably need to add in offensive rebounding because I think we only got one in the second half. We need Mo Dioubate to be a little bit more locked into the scouting report stuff so we can play more because he’s a monster on the glass, and hopefully, we’ll get him tuned in for the Mississippi State one. We’re going to need a lot more in that game.
“But Cliff, the most rebounds Cliff’s had since he’s been here. He had 15 rebounds and he had the best defensive leverage on the team. We were 45 points per 100 possessions better when him on the floor on the defensive end than we were when he was off the floor. So I thought it was a great game out of the Cliff tonight.”
