Oats leads the way
Nate Oats didn’t just speed up Alabama’s playing style by urging his players to put the pedal to the metal whenever they got the chance. He also mashed the accelerator in lifting the program from the doldrums of recent seasons into SEC champions and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Oats did it with an uptempo style and by adding key pieces to a team that already had some talented players on the roster.
Nate Oats didn’t just speed up Alabama’s playing style by urging his players to put the pedal to the metal whenever they got the chance.
The fifth-ranked Crimson Tide’s second-year coach also mashed the accelerator in lifting the program from the doldrums of recent seasons into SEC champions and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Oats did it with an uptempo style and by adding key pieces to a team that already had some talented players on the roster.
As he readily admits, “When we came here, the cupboard wasn’t bare.”
It is still a rapid ascension for the Tide (24-6), which followed up its first SEC regular-season title in 19 years by winning the league tournament for the first time since 1991. Alabama matched the program’s highest NCAA seed — also earning a No. 2 seed in 1987 and 2002 — and faces Rick Pitino’s Iona (12-5) on Saturday.
It’s a marked turnaround for a program that had struggled to turn the corner under Anthony Grant, and ex-NBA player and head coach Avery Johnson. But also from last season, when Alabama went 16-15 even with eventual NBA lottery pick Kira Lewis at point guard.
Under Oats’ tutelage, former defensive specialist Herbert Jones has emerged as the SEC’s player of the year as well as its top defender. He and fellow senior John Petty stuck around after exploring entering the NBA Draft. Senior Alex Reese also remains as a key role player.
They’re all holdovers from Johnson’s 2017 recruiting class that was ranked eighth nationally by 247Sports but couldn’t turn things around in time to save his job.
Sophomore Jaden Shackelford, who signed while Johnson was still Alabama’s coach, is the team’s leading scorer at 14.2 points per game. But Oats has also built depth with transfers such as former 5-star recruit Jahvon Quinerly (Villanova), Jordan Bruner (Yale) and Keon Ellis (junior college), along with freshman Joshua Primo.
The result is a team that fits the template that put Oats on the map at Buffalo, relying heavily on speed and three-pointers from every position. And one that Quinerly believes “can take the NCAA Tournament by storm.”
“I have full faith if we lock in and do what we’ve got to do, we’ll be crowned again,” said Quinerly, who was the SEC Tournament MVP despite coming off the bench. “There’s more work to do.”
Alabama’s big strides last season came offensively. This season has been more about the defense.
The Tide are averaging 79.6 points per game but also allowing just 69.8 on average. That’s down from last season’s 79.0 yield.
No team has attempted more than Alabama’s 912 three-pointers this season. The Tide also rank third with an average of 10.7 makes per game.
A few months after the Tide won the SEC and national titles in football, Alabama is looking for the rare double-double. No school has won the league in both sports since Florida in 2006-07 on its way to dual national championships.
“Just to see our school do both things, in basketball and football, just tells about the school itself,” Petty said. “Just the way they recruit. Just the people we have around our school. It’s amazing.”
SATURDAY: IMSA 12 Hours of Sebring (10 a.m., NBCSN and IMSA.TV); Truck Series at Atlanta (2:30, Fox Sports 1); Xfinity Series at Atlanta (5 p.m., FS1). SUNDAY: Cup Series at Atlanta (3 p.m., Fox)