Nate Oats spoke with reporters Wednesday following Alabama basketball’s practice inside Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. Here’s a transcript of what the head coach had to say ahead of No. 4 seed Alabama’s Sweet 16 matchup against No. 1 seed North Carolina on Thursday night.
Opening statement
“Our guys are excited. I thought our practice was locked in. North Carolina is one of the best teams in the country, deservedly so. They’ve got a lot of talented guys. We’ve got our hands full.
“Our defense has to be a lot better than it’s been most of the year. I thought we had a good defensive game against Grand Canyon. Our offense wasn’t very good. We’re going to need both of them together playing well in order to beat North Carolina. I do like where our guys’ heads are at.”
On Latrell Wrightsell’s head injury
Latrell is being re-evaluated by the medical staff every day, and he’s basically on a day-to-day basis now. I’m not sure if he’ll be available or not. They’ll let us know tomorrow. Other than that, we’re healthy. Obviously, Davin’s out.
But I think our guys are locked in. Should be a fun game. North Carolina likes to get up-and-down the floor, as do we. So it’s going to be a pretty fast-paced game, I would think.
On the game plan against North Carolina
“We’re going to have to do a good job on Bacot. We’ve played some of the best bigs in the country, so we’ve had some experience. We’ve played Edey, Ballo, Caulkner (phonetic) back to back. Played PJ Hall at Clemson. Played Tolu Smith at Mississippi State. We’ve played some of these bigger guys. Some we’ve guarded better than others. We will have to have a plan for Bacot.
“Then obviously RJ Davis is one of the best scorers in the country. Him and Sears are 11th and 13th, they’re right there together. He’s super talented.
“You can’t just have a game plan for Bacot. You’ve got to plan for Davis. Cormac Ryan hit seven 3s against (indiscernible), he was 7-of-9 from 3 against us when he was at Notre Dame. Ingram just went 5-of-6 from 3 last game. They’ve got multiple guys that can shoot it, score it inside. That’s why they’re the Number 1 seed.
“We’ve got our hands full. We know it. I think our guys are locked in and ready to go.
On Mo Dioubate
“He’s been tough, physical. His attitude’s been great. We always know, if we put him in, we can get some toughness. We’ve got to find a way to get him some minutes.
“We like to have shooting on the floor, and it’s not one of his strong suits. He was shooting well in practice today. But he’s easier to pair with like Grant at the 5 maybe. Then you still only have one non-shooter on the floor.
“But like his toughness, physicality, kind of his will to win — yeah, he’s probably earned some more minutes. We’ve just got to figure out ways to get him. And based on how Wrightsell is, Wrightsell has been cleared to play before and then hasn’t played that many minutes. So even if he can play, if he doesn’t play that many minutes there going to be minutes available for Mo to pick up.
On the five-year anniversary of him becoming Alabama’s head coach
“Didn’t realize, March 27th it was, huh?
“One week after my oldest daughter’s birthday. She didn’t like — it wasn’t a very good birthday present for her to move her from Buffalo to Alabama. It’s turned out to be pretty good. She loves it in Alabama now. Lexie is a sophomore at the university. Lexie and Jos will be here for the game tomorrow. We’ve come to love Alabama.
“I think we’ve gotten the program turned around. I think we’ve been able to do what Greg hired us to do. Let’s get this basketball program on a national level, like about every other sports program at Alabama is.
“We still haven’t gotten to a Final Four. To me, that’s kind of the next step. So got to win tomorrow to get a chance to win another game to get to the Final Four. Making a Final Four is not easy. You’ve got to beat some good teams. You’ve got to upset some teams.
“Somebody gave me a good stat the other day. I think there’s been four teams in the country that have been in three out of the last four Sweet 16s. I think it’s accurate. I think it’s us, Gonzaga, which has made nine straight, which is crazy — it’s us, Gonzaga, Houston, who we’ve had a series with, and Creighton. Pretty good company.
“I think over the five years since we were hired, we’ve gotten this program to a level that is what Alabama sports should have their athletics at. Now we’ve got to make another step.
“We’ve got to get this team locked in, really ready to go against Carolina. I’m super grateful to Greg and Dr. Bell and (indiscernible) St. Jean (phonetic) and the whole board. They’ve been super supportive. I’m appreciative that they gave me a new contract and want to keep me around. In this business, sometimes they don’t want to keep you around for very long. I think we’ve done well enough they want to keep us here and keep this thing rolling.
On North Carolina guard Cormac Ryan, who beat Alabama with Notre Dame two seasons ago
“That was not one of our better NCAA Tournament games. He killed us. I think he was 7-of-9 from three. I think he scored 29 points on us. That was the game that Quinerly blew his ACL out in the first couple minutes. So it didn’t — he was playing really well for us. That’s the only time I’ve been at Alabama that we haven’t made a Sweet 16 that they’ve had an NCAA Tournament.
“They didn’t have the tournament my first year, with COVID. And then these last four years we’ve made a Sweet 16 three of those years. That was the one.
“We tried to recruit him when he went in the portal. The kid destroys you like that, it would be good to add him to the roster. We were not successful in our recruitment of him. He picked another pretty good basketball program, and here we go. So we’ve got to try to figure out how to stop him a second time.
On how Alabama returned to the Sweet 16 despite its roster turnover
“We had three returning players from last year, so it’s not many, but we’re in the transfer portal when that happens. Those three guys got good experience, Mark [Sears] and Rylan [Griffen] and Nick [Pringle].
“Then we were able to add in some really good freshmen that have contributed. We talked about Mo Dioubate earlier, and Jarin Stevenson, who’s from Chapel Hill. So this is a little bit of a meaningful game for him. Sam Walters has been good for us.
“Those three guys, and then we were able to add some transfers that have really helped keep this program at a pretty high level. Estrada has kind of been that do-it-all guard that’s been great for us. Had a triple-double. Grant [Nelson’s] been good for us. Wrightsell’s been really good for us.
“I think we’ve got a pretty good mix of a lot of new guys in to keep this program up to where, you know, we’re not the Number 1 overall seed like last year, but you don’t get Brandon Miller every year either.
‘I thought we got some pretty good replacements in to keep us at a pretty high level to where we’re in the Sweet 16 and we’ve got a shot to make the second — Alabama has only been to one Elite Eight ever, and that’s the farthest they’ve ever gone. If we can win one more game, we kind of equal that, and then give ourselves a shot to try to make the first Final Four ever there.
On how much Alabama will need Nick Pringle against North Carolina
“I think Nick’s been great in the NCAA Tournament — leadership, effort, intensity, focus. When he’s that way, he’s good.
“I had a meeting with all of our bigs, first film session we had in Carolina and kind of made the point to them, listen, we’ve played some of the best bigs in the country. It’s great we put a schedule together that you guys were able to test. The issue is we haven’t done all that well.
“We had Nick and Wague foul out three straight games. We’ve got to guard the big without fouling and keep you guys in the game, do a better job. I expect those guys to lock into film study and be a little better.
“I think Nick’s been great the last week. He’s battling a foot injury, but at this point in the year, if you’re healthy, it probably means you’re not playing any minutes. I think everybody is banged up this point of the year.
“I think his mindset is right. Bacot is one of the best bigs in the country. If we can do pretty well on Bacot and still have a decent amount of points. I think he’s scored over 2,300 points. That’s a lot of points in his career. He’s a pretty good player.”
On replacing his coaching staff this offseaosn
“It was great in some regards because you get to see your three assistants that have been with you for four years get the opportunity to go be their own head coach, which is why — kind of the ultimate goal of an assistant. So you’re really close to Bryan [Hodgson], Charlie [Henry] and Antoine [Pettway]. They’ve kind of been in the wars with you for four years and now they get to run their own programs. I’m super happy for them. But maybe not all at the same time?
“If it comes up, we’re the Number 1 team in the country, so that helps. We’ve got a saying, when the tide rises, all the boats rise. Usually with the players to get them to realize, when you win, you all get taken care of. But it applies to the staff, too.
“So while I was really happy, it did cause some stress. Charlie and Bryan had their jobs, and then the day that Pettway got his, I all of a sudden realized, I have no assistants anymore.
“We started to make some hires. I talked to Coach [Ryan] Pannone a little bit, but he still had the NBA season going. Talked to a couple other guys in the NBA that maybe wanted to get into college. Talked to Preston [Murphy], had to sort through some issues on him.
“I interviewed a handful of guys when I’d been at the Final Four myself. And then all of a sudden I had to make some decisions. I’m at zero. At least until Antoine left, I had one. To have zero assistants and realize you’ve got to replace all these players, I’ve got to get going.
“When Pannone said he wanted to do it, that’s great. He still had to finish the NBA season. Preston had to wait until his show-cause was up. So I got [Austin] Claunch in, who had been a head coach, and a think I did really good job.
“Although I think I did a pretty good job with the hiring. And now I’ve got to go hire some more because Claunch already got a job, again, which is great because he deserves it.
“I think, to put the roster together that we did speaks volumes to our staff, to our system. To be able to hire the guys in that I did speaks to the level of basketball we’ve got in this program too. Yeah, and we only had three returning players and no returning assistant coaches.
“Now, you’re able to put two more guys on the floor (indiscernible) recruit, so Bauman’s been with me for a while. So we were able to have one, some continuity with a guy on the floor that’s been with me.
“I think our staff did a great job. We did a pretty good job hiring, and the administration was great in helping me hire the right guys and keeping this program up to a pretty high level.”
On balancing good offense and defensive performances
“I told them we don’t have to forget about offense when we play great defense. You can put both together. The Grand Canyon game, I’ve had people compare it to a rugby contest, football contest. It got a little rough, physical.
“I like the fact that our guys matched their physicality and stayed in it and didn’t quit and showed a lot of character. But, yeah, it would be nice if our offense — take care of the ball, make shots like we’ve been.
“We’re going to need both. I honestly in the past have felt like, when we’ve played our best defensive games with other teams, even this team, you can get out in transition more when you’re getting stops. So a great defense should help your offense in theory.
“Now, again, when it was as physical as it was and guys had to get used to the officiating and what was going to be called, what wasn’t going to be called, that might have had some effect on the offense.
“I think North Carolina is a pretty physical team, though too, which they’ve got a pretty good defense. We’ve got to get our offense back, we know that. We’re not going to be able to hold Carolina to 60 points. That’s not really who we are, and that’s definitely not who they are.
“We’re going to have to get an offense that’s clicking like the No. 1 offense in the country in order to have a chance to win this game. So we’ve made that point. We’re putting a little more time in on our offensive side, trying to figure out how to attack them.
“Now, they’re not easy to figure out how to attack. They’ve got really good rim protection. They’ve got good guards. They’ve got smart players. They’re good. But we are putting some time in on the offensive side of the ball too.”
