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Alabama head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters at the Grand Bohemian Hotel in Mountain Brook, Ala., on Wednesday as part of SEC Basketball Media Days. Below is a full transcript of everything Oats said about his 2022-23 Crimson Tide team in his time behind the podium.
âItâs good to be here, itâs good to be back. Itâs the first Media Days since my first year, so things are looking like theyâre back to normal, which is great. Weâre looking forward to the year.
âWeâve got a good, young group. Weâve got a lot of new faces. Weâve got 12 kids on scholarship, only four of them have ever played a game for Alabama before and Quinerlyâs out âtill maybe SEC play, sometime in December, with an ACL. So weâll have three guys that have ever played a game for us suit for our first game, thatâs Darius, Charles and Noah. That means weâve got new eight new faces â four freshmen, the other ones are all transfers.
âWe need a lot of production out of the new faces, so I think youâll see some, at the beginning of the year, there may be some games weâre a little inconsistent. I think weâve got a lot of room for growth, and weâre looking to try to be peaking at the end of the year. So we may go through a few growing pains early. Weâve got a tough non-conference schedule to get us ready. But weâre looking forward to it.â
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On how heâs seen the team grow since the foreign tour, what he got out of the TCU scrimmageâŠ
âSince the trip, weâve been able to do a lot more. We got a headstart being the 10 practices in the summer and the games over there, but weâve been able to put a little bit more in. I think certain guys that maybe didnât play as well as they thought on the trip have been a little more motivated, theyâve been in more. So weâve been working.
âThe scrimmage with TCU, I believe theyâve got the most production back of any high-major team in the country. So they had a couple sixth-year guys and a lot of real veteran guys. We had a lot of young guys. Charles and Nimari had some minor injuries, so we held them out of that scrimmage. Theyâll be fine, though. So when you took those two out and Quinerly out, thereâs three guys that potentially could be starters that didnât play, so weâre playing a lot of really young players, and I think it was a welcome to high-major basketball from some veteran guys.
âThe first half was a little rough, and then the second half, we played a lot better. Brandon Miller was really good in the second half. But thatâs why we do it. We strategically schedule who we schedule, and I think we did it for a reason. I want our guys to play against tough teams, whether itâs the non-conference, the preseason scrimmage and all that. Weâll be better for it, though. It was good for us.â
On if being picked to finish fifth in the SEC is a fair assessment with so many new facesâŠ
âI did happen to see that on the drive down here today. It doesnât really matter what they put you at preseason, it matters what happens once the games start playing. I think our potential is there to be one of the best teams in the SEC and challenge for a title. Now, potential doesnât mean a whole lot if you donât get any production out of it once you start playing games. Weâre excited about our team, but weâve got a lot of work to do. I do think youâll see a lot of growth from us, non-conference up until conference, just because of our youth and inexperience. I think a lot of those freshmen will get a lot better more so than a guy thatâs played four or five years.
âShoot, with the COVID deal now youâve got kids playing their fifth year. Weâve got one of them, Dom Welch, and guys that are in their sixth year, if they had a redshirt year and with the COVID year, theyâre in their sixth year of college basketball. Thereâs just a lot of veteran guys out there, and I think youâll see a lot more growth with some of the freshmen who havenât played college basketball before. So hopefully that happens for us.â
On players responding to âif youâre not going to guard, youâre not going to playâ mentalityâŠ
âI think that theyâve got it up here (points to temple). We need to see it being fleshed out on the floor. TCU was the first time weâve played somebody else, and weâve got some work to do on that end. TCU put a little pressure on our young guys on the defensive end, some guys need to take some more individual pride in their individual defense. But in practice, I think our guys are playing hard against each other.
âI think they know it. I think the biggest way theyâll see it is the first game when weâve got plenty of guys healthy and minutes are distributed accordingly. If you canât guard and youâre not gonna guard, your minutes are not gonna be what youâd like them to be. I think thatâs the first time theyâll really be able to see, but I think guys are working to try to make themselves better defenders in practice right now.â
On if returning players have chips on their shoulders after last seasonâŠ
âThey should have a big chip on their shoulder. We proved we could play with the best in the country. We played three of the previous yearâs Final Four teams and went 3-0, beat Gonzaga, Baylor and Houston. But we had some inconsistencies about us. We had some injuries late in the year. Obviously, Quinerly blowing his knee out less than three minutes into the first round of the NCAA Tournament game didnât help anything. But even before that, we werenât playing our best basketball come March, which that was my seventh year as a Division I head coach and typically most of my teams have been peaking at the end. We won three out of four MAC Tournaments and we won the SEC Tournament, the only one that we were able to play in our second year up until last year. But we definitely were not playing our best basketball.
âSo thatâs definitely one of our goals is to try to be peaking at the right time this year. Letâs not peak in December or January. So weâve gotta be strategic with how we manage player loads, all that, practice and all that. But a lot of itâs more mental. Just like you said, having a chip on your shoulder and wanting to prove something. We really only have four guys that have played a game here before, and I think they all have something to prove. Quinerly was the only one that played significant minutes on the team that won the SEC Championship, and he kind of went out on an injury. Now, heâs got something to prove to prove that he can get back to the same place he was before his injury. Weâve got a lot to prove this year.â
Biggest quote here:
On how the chemistry is coming together with a new-look teamâŠ
âI think weâve got a really good group of guys. I think they really wanna see each other do well. I like the chemistry. Now, we havenât had to play many games where guys donât get the minutes or shots or whatever that maybe they envisioned, so itâs a lot easier to have great chemistry in the middle of October than it is the middle of February, January. But so far, I think theyâre good.
âGo on the foreign trip, they hung out a lot. You see guys wanting to spend time with each other. You see them in the gym together on their own. Like when itâs not required stuff, theyâre getting in there with each other. So I like our group. I like the chemistry. I think weâve got good guys that way, and hopefully, it continues throughout the year when times get a lot tougher and guys personally face some adversity, whether itâs an injury or not playing that much. Can they still continue to cheer their teammates on when they personally arenât getting as much done this year as maybe what they would have thought.â
Everything Alabama head coach Nate Oats said at SEC Tipoff '23
Read and watch everything Oats said about his 2022-23 Crimson Tide team during his time behind the podium.
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