Everything Nate Oats said following Alabama’s 79-69 win over LSU
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
No. 4 Alabama took care of business on Saturday with a 79-69 road win over the LSU Tigers.
Even though the Tigers are one of the bottom feeders in the SEC, anytime you can grab a road win in conference play, you have to take time to enjoy it. Especially when you are chasing a conference championship like the Crimson Tide.
With the win, Alabama is now 20-3 on the season and a perfect 10-0 in SEC play. LSU drops to 12-11 overall and a pitiful 1-9 in conference competition.
Following the win, Alabama head coach Nate Oats would address the media and discuss his team’s performance.
Opening statement
“It was definitely not one of our better wins, but sometimes, when you’re competing for a league championship, you’ve gotta go on the road and win game that aren’t pretty – ugly. I thought we had some guys step up. It’s back-to-back games Nimari’s played really well for us. Rylan shot the ball really well tonight. It’s good to see some guys step up. I think JQ created some really good offense for us in the second half.
“Our defense was nowhere close to where we’d like it to be, but I thought late in the game, we got some stops when we needed to. Clowney really stepped up for us big there late. You’ve gotta give them a lot of credit. We kind of pounded them on the glass the first time we played them, but this time, we only had four O boards for the entire game. I told our guys, too, we’re gonna hurt teams one way in one game, and they’re gonna make a huge point of emphasis to stop it the second time we play them. And we’ve gotta do a better job still figuring out a way to make that a strength of ours.
On how the team responded in the effort department following Vandy win
“Not like it was against Vanderbilt, no. I’m a little disappointed with the effort, to be honest with you. We got out-rebounded by five. We’ve gotta do a better job. We’ve gotta find a group of guys that’s really gonna play hard no matter what and kind of get back to – you can’t be up and down every other game. But we’re not gonna be able to do that and get wins moving forward. We’ve got Florida, Auburn, Tennessee, the last two being on the road. We’ve gotta play well in all three of those games coming up. If we play this, we’re not gonna get a win.”
On Mark Sears second half performance following slow start
“He’s wired to score. I told him at halftime, ‘Let’s get back to playing hard on D, doing the blue-collar stuff and I think the offense will flow.’ And I think it did. I thought played harder in the second half and then got some looks. I think Quinerly being in there with him created some looks for him. He shot it well. He shot 3-of-5 from three. He couldn’t really finish at the rim very well, but he was pretty efficient from three. He didn’t have a turnover, he had three assists, no turnovers. I thought he played well for us there late when we needed some scoring to open the game up late.”
On Noah Clowney's offensive value
“I told him when he got here that I think the hardest bigs to guard in pick-and-roll are the ones that can roll, finish at the rim, pop, make a three, play in the short roll and handle the ball. And I think he does all of those really well, especially now that he’s making three. When you don’t know whether he’s gonna pop or roll, it’s a lot harder to guard. We had him on the one lob that he finished. He hit two threes. He can pop, get into a toss game, pop again. He can pop, get into a toss game, roll on the second one. He puts a lot of pressure on a defense. He’s been great for us. I thought he was really good defensively. But he was good for us on offense for a stretch there, too, tonight.”
On the value of Nimari Burnett and Rylan Griffen in the last two games
“It’s been huge. We’ve needed scoring. Teams are gonna try to take Brandon and Mark out. They’ve been our leading scorers on the year, and we need somebody else to make some shots and those two guys are proven shot-makers that stepping up and making shots in games now. So I’m super happy for both of them. They’re great kids. Both of them just want to team to do well.
“An instance tonight where we’re making a sub, we needed to get somebody in and I wasn’t quite sure who to put him in for. I put him in for Quinerly, and Rylan said, ‘No, no, no, no. Coach, we’ve gotta leave JQ in. He’s creating offense for everybody. Take me out, leave JQ in.’ And sure enough, JQ comes downhill off the next ball screen, sprays it out, Sears hit a three and Rylan said, ‘I told you, Coach.’ He’s over there on the bench.
“I think Rylan just cares about the team. Nimari’s got that same kind of mindset. It’s good for guys like that that can make shots that are making shots to also just be big team guys.”
On being able to win the game defensively at the end of the game
“It was great because I didn’t think the first 30 minutes we were that good on the defensive end. Our offense was flowing pretty good for a while there, and then, yeah, it hit a wall there late in the game. I’ve gotta look at our lineups late in game. We probably had the wrong guys in, to be honest with you. Some of that’s on me as the coach. They’re trying to get their guys rest and put guys in. But at this point, it’s about winning, and you’ve gotta put guys on the floor that are producing and maybe use a timeout to rest them.
“But yeah, it was ugly basketball there for a while, but I was proud of the way our guys played on the defensive end. They came up with some tough plays, got some tough rebounds. That was Clowney in the middle of that, the big chase-down block. He had the save. He had some really big plays on the defensive end. But yeah, we’re gonna have to win some games on the defensive end. It’d be nice if we were really locked in on defense the whole game and then the offense just dictated the scoring margin on a win.
“But we found a way to win a tough road game. This team’s a lot better than what their record is. They’re gonna beat some teams here in the second half of league (play) that people don’t expect them to beat.”
On how Brandon Miller handled a poor shooting night by doing everything else well
“He’s matured a lot. He had the double-double, won the Hard Hat. Teams are being really physical with him. We didn’t feel we got the benefit of the whistle on a few of those calls where he was driving. He may have got fouled, but he’s gonna have to play through some physicality. That’s how teams are gonna guard him.
“I thought last game, we were able to free him up on some screens. This time, they were a lot better and they kind of grabbed him and just didn’t let him get free on some screens. And then when he drove, they were playing extra physical. So he’s gotta be able to play through some of that, but I thought he kept playing hard. He had a double-double and thought gave us pretty good minutes even though he didn’t shoot it particularly well tonight.”
Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes, and opinion. You can also follow Stacey Blackwood on Twitter @Blackwood89.
