Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters after the Crimson Tide's win over South Dakota State. The Tide (11-2) wrapped up non-conference play and will face Oklahoma on Jan. 4 in its first SEC game.

Here's everything Oats said after the Tide's win over the Jackrabbits.

“That wraps up the non-conference. I thought it was a good one for us to get some confidence with some shooters. Defensive intensity, I thought was pretty good for most of the first 20 minutes. I did not like the start of the second half — matter of fact, the second half period. We gave up 49 points. This is a really good offensive team. I thought defensively we were locked in, the big lead at the half up over 20, then we didn’t play as hard as we needed to to start that second half. Little disappointed with our focus and being locked in particularly on the defensive end to start the second half.

“All in all, we made 19 threes. Would’ve been nice if Grant on a couple or Aden on the one where they had their foot on the line to hit 20 again, but you know, I like the aggressiveness with which Sears and Holloway were taking them. Mo Dioubate, you know what you’re gonna get out of him. He gets seven o-boards in 17 and a half minutes. We need some other guys to bring the effort that he brings, because I thought particularly there in the second half we needed some energy and some effort, he came in and gave it to us.

“Grant had a really good start, almost a double-double with 17 and eight, and we had three guys over 20 points. I thought the ball moved, our backcourt between Sears, Philon and Holloway, ball was really moving and those guys swung it. I thought we did a great job with the turnovers, season-low in turnovers. Been stressing that, I think our guys did a much better job with that.”

“He’s got an ankle injury that he sustained in practice two days ago. Little bit of a flare-up from a summer injury. We’re hoping that clears up quickly and he can practice by the middle of the week, get him ready for Oklahoma. We’ll have to see what comes. Houston Mallette has just had an illness really since we got back from Christmas break. Hopefully whatever bug he’s got gets over with quickly and he can start practicing this week, too.”

“Obviously, maybe a surprise to the public, but we kind of knew within the program based on play in the summer how good Labaron has been. He’s been really good in the games too. We’ve had to adjust a little bit. Surprised we’re not shooting the ball as well I thought we’d shoot it. 3-point percentage isn’t as good as we’d like, but some of that is Youngblood was out all summer, and Wrightsell got hurt. So two of the guys that are supposed to be our better shooters, then Houston with the redshirt is supposed to be a better shooter. So three of those guys, Wrightsell’s out, Youngblood was out, Houston had been out for a while. Between those guys we expect to have a little bit better shooting team. We’ve got to find out different ways to score the basketball when we’re not shooting. Today, we made 18 threes, but we shot 34 and a half percent, so it’s not like we shot it great today. Little disappointing with how we’re shooting it from three but we’re gonna have to figure out other ways to score the basketball.

"I think we’ve had some pleasant surprises. Labaron’s been good, we kind of expected Derrion, he’s been dealing with a little bit of injuries but we expect him to be pretty good. He’s gotten better and better as it’s gone on.

“We’re just, I don’t want to say huge surprises, but we have learned we’re capable of playing with anybody in the country. If we’re not gonna shoot it particularly well, which has been the case, we’ve got to figure out ways, get to the o-boards better, take care of it better, make sure we get a shot up, then get to the offensive board. Defensively, we’ve got to have a little more intensity, turn people over. Today we had 24 points off turnovers, have to try to get a little bit more of that than maybe we’ve had. We’ve learned a lot, going down to Purdue and playing a tough road game, even North Dakota, they were a tough road game. Got to get our lead player package together, we got exposed on that a little up there. We’ve seen lots of different styles, our post defense got exposed a little bit, particularly starting with the Purdue game. We’ve got to be a little bit better with that and have different options with that. Different things we got exposed on that we’ve got to work on, we’ve just got to keep working on it”

“I think it helped Holloway. He was able to play about 27 minutes. Little bit easier to make eight threes when you’re able to get 19 up, and I think he probably turned down a couple, he should have had 20 attempts in my opinion. Probably helped him get in some rhythm, we’ve got to get him better on defense. He’s got to be a better defender for us. Offensively it’s good to get him in some rhythm. Sears got pretty good minutes, and I thought played pretty well in his minutes. Fewer turnovers than what he’s been having. Him getting the amount of threes up that he got, need him taking more threes. I thought Aiden Sherrell got more minutes than he’s gotten most of the year. He got a little more comfortable. He hit that should-have-been a three, his foot was on the line, so he hit he jumper there. Different guys were able to get in the rotation a little bit more. CY was able to play a few more minutes, we’ve got to get him back a lot more comfortable before next Saturday.”

“It’s a lot better than what a lot of people thought it was gonna be. We’ve got some of the best teams in the country in our league. Auburn and Tennessee are at the top, Florida’s been good, really good, Oklahoma’s been great, Kentucky’s been markedly improved, Texas A&M has really good wins, you kind of go down the list. I’m sure I missed plenty of the really good ones. I think there’s a lot we need to be better at, there’s a lot we need to clean up to be competing for a championship in this league, but I do think we tested ourselves against some of the better teams in the country. We’ve done pretty well at times. We know when we’re playing our best we can play with anybody in the country, we just haven’t been consistent over 40 minutes. We gotta get there, I think hopefully our guys, with the level of these teams in the SEC, they’ll be better at staying locked in and focused for 40 minutes.

"We got Oklahoma who’s far exceeded everyone’s expectations so far in the year coming in to start the thing out. This is not gonna be an easy game, they’re talent level is good, they’ve good a really good coach. Porter’s taken Loyola to the Final Four and been really good. They’re well coached with talent that plays hard, they’re gonna be tough to beat. If we’re gonna have any kind of chance to win the SEC you’ve got to take care of your home floor, so we’ve got a home game to start and we’ll have to be ready to roll against Oklahoma in six days.”