No. 5 Alabama Basketball's Preparation for Iona Continues: "We've Gotta Make Sure Our Guys Are Playing Hard and Loose"

Nate Oats and the rest of the Alabama basketball team arrived in Indianapolis on Sunday evening by bus after clinching the 2021 SEC Tournament title and spent Monday in isolation, waiting in their hotel rooms on a second round of COVID-19 test results.

With all negative tests, the No. 2 seed Crimson Tide can begin practicing and gearing up for its Round-of-62 matchup with No. 15 seed Iona on Saturday afternoon inside Hinkle Fieldhouse (3 p.m. TBS).

"I think we are in good shape and ready to move around," Oats said on his weekly Monday night radio show.

On Tuesday morning, the Crimson Tide received good news and cleared COVID-19 protocol.

The status of freshman guard Josh Primo, who suffered a sprained MCL last Friday versus Mississippi State and missed Alabama's last two games, continues to be a storyline to watch entering the NCAA Tournament.

“He said he’s done with the crutches,” Oats said. “I think he’s coming along pretty good. Hopefully he keeps coming along. He needs this quarantine to end so he can work more rehab with Clarke (Holter) We weren’t going to put him out there if he wasn’t ready to go. Hopefully, he will be ready on Saturday.”

The SEC Coach of the Year used his time in quarantine to digest more film of the Iona Gaels, who are led by coach Rick Pitino, who has won the NCAA Tournament twice, once in 1996 with Kentucky and in 2013 with Louisville.

“They’re a good team,” Oats said. “They’re obviously well-coached. They’ve got a couple of good guards (Asante Gist and Isaiah Ross). They’ve got a good, young freshman big (Nelly Junior Joseph). They’ve got a freshman guard off the bench that shoots it well. Pitino knows what he’s doing. He knows how to coach. He’s gonna have them well-prepared.

“We’ve got more talented players, but we’re gonna have to come ready to play. A 15 has beat a two, a 16 has beat a one, so our guys gotta understand that they’ve gotta come ready to go. I think they will. I think we’ve had a maturity about us that will show up again, but we’ve gotta emphasize that this week.”

Coming into Saturday's matchup, a lot will be made of the Pitino vs Oats clash, but according to Oats, it's more about the players.

“Now, I gotta coach against Rick Pitino,” Oats said. “As you’re a high school coach, coming up through and some of these guys you’ve watched a lot of, now you’re going against them. So it’ll be a good night to go against Coach Pitino. But the good thing is my players have to play his players, I don’t have to play him. I think our players are pretty good, and I think we’ll have them ready to go.”

In the history of the Big Dance, a 15-seed has only upset a two-seed eight times. Two-seeds are 132-8 all-time. Oats is hoping that Alabama doesn't become the ninth.

"When upsets happen, the top team either plays really tight or just doesn’t play as hard as they need to,” Oats said. “We’ve gotta make sure our guys are playing hard and loose. That’s gonna be the mantra. We’ve got a whole week to prep them for it. I think we’ll do a good job. We’re gonna start out early in the week, just more worried about ourselves, getting us right, and then we’ll start leaning more and more into the scout as the week goes on.”

Hinkle Fieldhouse is home to the Butler Bulldogs, but its claim to fame is that it is the location where the final scene of Hoosiers was filmed. Once the Crimson Tide gets out of quarantine, it might be time for a team movie night before tip-off.

“When I was growing up, everybody watched Hoosiers," Oats said. "That was like everybody’s favorite movie. I might have to break it out, see if we can get the VHS tape of Hoosiers out for them. I coached a high school game there, actually. We played Lawrence North when they had Mike Conley. Shoot, they had seven Division I players, they had Greg Oden.

“It’s pretty cool. We practiced there when we were at Buffalo once. It’s a historic place. It’s awesome. It’s pretty cool that we get to play a game there, to be honest with you. We’ll try to make sure our players understand the historic significance of it. I’m not sure they’ll quite get it all, but it is a pretty cool place to coach a game at.”