🏀 What Nate Oats wants to be different about Alabama basketball this season

[Bammerboy321]

What Oats wants to be different about Tide this year

"We’ve got the talent to win. We’ve just got to keep the chemistry, the camaraderie, the leadership. Our leadership has got to be good.”

www.al.com

“We really got to make sure that everybody is bought into whatever they can do to help the team win,” Oats said, repeating a theme he raised in May. “I think we got a little off track with that last year. I think we had some guys really concerned about their personal, individual stats, goals. I think they could see the year before when everybody just cared about the team, the individual stuff got taken care of, as well.”

It was something Oats brought up at times last season, pointing out how players such as Herb Jones and Joshua Primo were not necessarily stat-sheet stars during Alabama’s Sweet Sixteen run a season prior but both benefited from the team winning. Primo became the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, while Jones was a second-round pick who quickly blossomed into one of the league’s best rookies.

“When your team wins, your individual stuff gets taken care of,” Oats continued Thursday. “When you’re worried about your individual stats and the team doesn’t do as well.”

“Some of these guys got parents that are [involved],” he said. “Which is great, we’ve got really good parents. But parents tend to want to be about their own kid, not the team. Let’s make sure that we’re -- our uncle, cousin, sister, brother, parents -- that’s great, I love their support -- but let’s make sure if they’re not telling you what’s appropriate for the team to be great, let’s be sure we’re listening to the right things. I think that’s the big focus.


“Because we’ve got the talent to win. We’ve just got to keep the chemistry, the camaraderie, the leadership. Our leadership has got to be good.”

Defense was an area where Oats wanted to see his team continue to improve into the fall. The coach has cited a lack of size last season as one reason for its KenPom defensive efficiency slipping from third in the country in 2020-21 to 92nd.


“We’re gonna be a better defensive team than we were last year,” he said. “We can be a lot bigger but our defensive chemistry just has to continue to get better and we’ve got to figure that out.”


Oats reiterated Thursday that junior forward Darius Miles has emerged as a “vocal leader” but he would like to see others step up this season, too.


“Let’s get some other guys -- Noah Gurley,” Oats said. “Can we get Brandon [Miller], even though he’s a freshman? Can we get our point guards, Sears and Jaden, being a little bit more leaders? We’ve got to get some better leadership and just get our chemistry right.”


Alabama has not yet released its full non-conference schedule that will begin in November, but some of its confirmed games are against Gonzaga, Memphis, at Houston, and against Michigan State in a Thanksgiving-week tournament.

 

[Bammerboy321]

One of our OOC games we'll add is Liberty.

 

[alabama mike]

Hopefully, with the new additions and subtractions to this team, they will perform at a more adequate level. Team chemistry is huge and last year to it was to much me and not enough we.

 

[mando]

The sustained success of this team will align with how improved they are on the defensive end. I have said it in many threads, Oats offensive identify requires a great D to make it through the shooting slump games. It will be the difference in a win or loss in those games.

 

[Bammerboy321]

The sustained success of this team will align with how improved they are on the defensive end. I have said it in many threads, Oats offensive identify requires a great D to make it through the shooting slump games. It will be the difference in a win or loss in those games.

Agreed. During Oats' second season, the offense went through a dry spell and won games because of the defense. Last season was mixture of just really poor defensive effort, bad team chemistry, and mental errors.

 

[bamanc50]

Here’s what I hope is different. If the 3’s are not falling….PLEASE…PLEASE… have a plan B and not continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

 

[Bammerboy321]

Here’s what I hope is different. If the 3’s are not falling….PLEASE…PLEASE… have a plan B and not continue to do the same thing over and over again expecting a different result.

Every team under Oats is going to shoot 3s at a high clip. Regardless if they drop or not, the staff doesn't want anyone passing up an open shot.Taking threes and layups is the brand of basketball he's installed since he was a HS coach. And it's worked ever year here. Alabama was 13th in scoring offense, top 15 in two-point efficiency, and 48th in offensive efficiency. Over 51% of the team's shots were from outside the arc. I much prefer it to the style of basketball Grant and Avery ran. It's actually a fresh breath of air to have someone who actually has a system and is stubborn to it.

Outside of inconsistencies on defense, our biggest issues come from turnovers. Alabama was 314th in turnovers per game last season. Considering our pace of play, we'll likely have more turnovers than more, but last year was awful. Some of that had to do with the lack of ball handlers, which this team (on paper) has.

 

[bama alum]

Outside of inconsistencies on defense, our biggest issues come from turnovers. Alabama was 314th in turnovers per game last season. Considering our pace of play, we'll likely have more turnovers than more, but last year was awful. Some of that had to do with the lack of ball handlers, which this team (on paper) has.

I used to be a die-hard Celtics fan. I really don't care about the NBA, but if I have to, I'll check on the C's. I wish Davison the best of luck there; it really might be an interesting situation for him with a new coach this year. Anyway, Davison is in Boston; he's not in Tuscaloosa. The rate of turnovers shouldn't be as bad (knock, knock, knock) as last year's ridiculous amount of turnovers.

 

[mando]

All the press goes to Oats up tempo 3 point shooting offense but for his system to really work the defense has to be great. So many dry spells for the offense so the defense has to get those posessions back and get easy baskets to over come those slumps. How I see it anyway.

 

[rick4bama]

So how will Bama do this year?

 

[Bammerboy321]

So how will Bama do this year?

Here's the preseason schedule

1. North Carolina
2. Gonzaga
3. Houston
4. Kentucky
T5. Baylor
T5. Kansas
7. Duke
8. UCLA
9. Creighton
10. Arkansas
11. Tennessee
12. Texas
13. Indiana
14. TCU
15. Auburn
16. Villanova
17. Arizona
18. Virginia
19. San Diego State
20. Alabama
21. Oregon
22. Michigan
23. Illinois
24. Dayton
25. Texas Tech

Alabama plays preseason #2, #3, #4, #10, #11, #14, and potentially #21. Our SOS and RPI will be again great. With all the troubles we had last year, we were still a 6 seed because of our schedule. This team (again on paper) is deeper and will have a one-and-done player in Brandon Miller. Someone like that can definitely make a difference in a first round exit and a deep run in March. The back court will feature Mark Sears, 5* Jaden Bradley, Darius Miles, 4* Rylan Griffen (he might see similar PT Miles did his freshman year), Nimari Burnett, and Quinerly when he returns. So we're deep at guard. Inside, Bediako returns, who was arguably our only player last season who got better each game. Four-star Noah Clowney absolutely killed it this off season. Watch out for him. He, Gurley, and Nick Pringle will fight for minutes. We can go three-guard and stick one of them at 4 with Bediako at 5 also. But Oats generally likes to have 4 guards to play at his pace.

With the roster we have - and knowing the staff doesn't want last year's disappointment - I could see 22 regular season wins and a making it to the second weekend. I could also see us being a 6 seed with the same inconsistent play as last season and not even making it to round 32. It all depends on leadership and effort.

 

[Bammerboy321]

The Alabama Foreign Tour will be airing on SECN. Not sure when, but good footage of the 3-0 trip where Brandon Miller took over.