Nate Oats recaps Alabama's trip to Europe
After going 3-0 in Alabama’s trip to Europe, men’s basketball coach Nate Oats talked about the experience of playing overseas and who stood out for the Crimson Tide on Thursday's Hey Coach radio show.
“It was a lot of fun,” Oats said. “We played three games and that was a big part of it, but also a big part of it was the chemistry and camaraderie of the guys hanging out in a foreign country. … I thought they had a great time and came together as a group and we played well.”
The Crimson Tide averaged more than 105 points during the three-game stretch, including a 12-point win against the Chinese National Team, ranked No. 29 in the FIBA World Basketball rankings.
Oats said that six players — Brandon Miller, Mark Sears, Darius Miles, Dom Welch, Noah Clowney and Nimari Burnett — all averaged double figures for Alabama. While the fourth-year head coach said he expects the Alabama offense to be more balanced this season, Oats added that the team didn’t shoot the ball well during the trip.
“We didn’t shoot the ball well against China,” Oats said. “We were there for nine-straight days and that was the end of the trip and we hadn’t really been able to get in the gym. Our guys spend a lot of time in the gym so I think that was a part of that, but we still found a to beat the best team we played, while not shooting it well. That stood out to me.”
Along with needing more consistent shooting, Oats emphasized Alabama needed to be “a better defensive team.” Last season the Crimson Tide finished as the 320th defense in the country, allowing 76.5 points per game. It was the worst defensive scoring average during Oats’ tenure who said he wants to get back to the defensive effort from two seasons ago. That year, Alabama was ranked in the top three in defensive efficiency.
“We gotta be a better defensive team than we were last season, but we’ve got a lot of young talent and the chemistry on the defensive end is a big deal,” Oats said. “That just has to keep coming. Charles (Bediako) can protect the rim, Noah Clowney can play the four and the five. We can go big where we can put Charles, or Nick Pringle, or Noah Gurley, or maybe Clowney. … We can be a lot bigger, but our defensive chemistry has to continue to get better. We have figured out that if we want to be great, we have to get back to being in that top three in defensive efficiency like we were two years ago.”