📡 Alabama basketball: Nate Oats says it's 'impossible' for Crimson Tide to change offensive strategy right now - 247Sports

[Bama News]

Alabama basketball: Nate Oats says it's 'impossible' for Crimson Tide to change offensive strategy right now

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247sports.com

Alabama lives and dies by the 3-pointer, and that is nothing new. Coach Nate Oats' first two Crimson Tide teams were the same way, although this year's edition does not appear to have the same caliber of outside shooters. As such, Alabama has shot itself out of a number of games this season, including on Saturday in a 66-55 home loss to Kentucky. After the game, Oats addressed the Tide's 3-point shooting struggles and whether the team can change its approach midseason as it now is shooting just 30.5% from deep.

“We’d like to get the ball to the rim," Oats said, via BamaOnLine. "We did get downhill to the rim. And that’s the thing, we’ve kind of shown how we play here. We set SEC records in both our first two years for 3s made in a game. We’re gonna take 3s, but if people really study how we play this year, we’re scoring way more at the rim than we are from 3, too. And the floor’s spread. You’ve got slashers, you’ve got drives. We got the ball to the rim a fair amount. The issue is we missed those, too. We shot 13-of-25 at the rim. And we don’t have a huge post-up presence.

“... Over the season, if you’ve got shooters – and I feel like we do — I know right now we’re not making shots. Shoot, after tonight, we might be last in the league in 3-point percentage. I think we were 13th coming in. But all of the sudden, you can’t re-recruit a roster to start posting the ball up. And to be honest with you, if you look at post-up points per possession in college basketball, those points per possession aren’t very high either. So I do think getting the ball downhill, getting more paint touches in the possession, trying to get to the free-throw line – we didn’t make free throws at a high clip either tonight. That was an issue. But there’s subtle adjustments to make, but you’re not gonna, over the course of a game, all of the sudden change who you are. That’s impossible to do.”

The Tide has been one of the nation's most inconsistent teams this season, beating Gonzaga and Baylor while also losing to Georgia and Missouri, the SEC's two worst teams. It appeared that Alabama may have figured it out for good when it dismantled Baylor at home last weekend, but non-competitive losses to Auburn and Kentucky have changed things. Alabama went just 3-for-30 from 3-point range against the Wildcats, one of the worst outside shooting performances of any SEC team this season.

Alabama is now down to 4-6 in the SEC, although the Tide's NCAA Tournament resume remains strong thanks to its portfolio of signature wins. But the Tide is just a half-game out of 12th place ahead of Mizzou, Ole Miss and Georgia, so Wednesday's trip to Ole Miss will be a big one for its chances of turning things around in the SEC standings.

 

[Bammerboy321]

Outside of Quinerly, we don't have a guard that can be creative enough and consistently finish around the rim. Even JQ struggles a bit. It is what it is. The only tweek I would change is I wish we had Ellis or Gary consistently crash down for an alley oop or they can swing it for an extra pass. But really, Oats and the staff needs to spend more time on getting these guys to take care of the basketball. Even when we get a fastbreak opportunity, to me it's 50/50 if we even score. Guys throwing up awful passes, guys not finishing around the rim; awful travel (Miles against Auburn); etc..

There's really nothing you can change with this team though that's going to make them better. Our guards were 6/20 inside the paint against Kentucky. Bediako has played fairly well lately, so maybe the guys need to start feeding him more inside. But overall, our confidence is just shot.

 

[mando]

This team has to have Shackelford and JQ playing at a high level or they have no chance against most teams. Against the better teams they need one or two more to play better like Ellis. As far as JD he is just a liability right now.

 

[PurlJam]

I really thought JD was going to be something special. Swung and missed on that prediction. He's finding out it's a little different playing the same caliber or better talent than dominating kids in high school that are working the drive throughs at McDonald's now.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

I really thought JD was going to be something special. Swung and missed on that prediction. He's finding out it's a little different playing the same caliber or better talent than dominating kids in high school that are working the drive throughs at McDonald's now.

If one didn't know about all the hype and just watched his play, then most would see the guy as a 3* project you signed from your B-list.

 

[JoseyWalesTheOutlaw]

Saw these stats posted on another site

Since 2008 there have been 40 games where a team had a eFG% of 30.5% or worse (what we had Saturday).

Those teams went 1-39.

There was only 1 story Saturday that mattered - our shooting.


Over the last 6 weeks we are #346 out of 357 D1 teams in 3PT % at 27.0%.

That puts us in the bottom 3% nationally. The only hi-major team worse is Arizona State at 26.8%. They're 7-13.

 

[BamaFan334]

Saw these stats posted on another site

Since 2008 there have been 40 games where a team had a eFG% of 30.5% or worse (what we had Saturday).

Those teams went 1-39.

There was only 1 story Saturday that mattered - our shooting.


Over the last 6 weeks we are #346 out of 357 D1 teams in 3PT % at 27.0%.

That puts us in the bottom 3% nationally. The only hi-major team worse is Arizona State at 26.8%. They're 7-13.

Wow. For a team that relies on that aspect of the game, unbelievable.

 

[alabama mike]

When your whole offense revolves around driving to the basket and then kicking out for a 3, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SHOTS! It is also sad when your 7 footer does not get more rebounds.

 

[bamanc50]

When your whole offense revolves around driving to the basket and then kicking out for a 3, YOU HAVE TO MAKE SHOTS! It is also sad when your 7 footer does not get more rebounds.

Watching games this is all they practice. They for sure don't practice FT's, rebounding, and taking care of the ball.