Senior Trio Responsible for Alabama Basketball's Dramatic Shift in Culture
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — On March 20, 2019, Alabama basketball hit its low point.
In the first round of the National Invitation Tournament, the Crimson Tide suffered one of its most embarrassing losses in program history. Alabama, a No. 1 seed, was beaten in overtime by 8-seed Norfolk State, 80-79 — the biggest point-spread upset in NIT history, as the Crimson Tide had been favored by 16 points.
As if the loss wasn’t bad enough, the game took place in front of a crowd of 2,086 people inside Coleman Coliseum — an arena that holds a maximum capacity of upwards of 15,000. It was reflective of what fans thought of the program's direction.
However, not all hope was lost.
On that roster were three sophomores — all hailing from the state of Alabama — who were destined to help change the face of Alabama basketball: guard John Petty Jr., forward Alex Reese and wing Herbert Jones. However, each had a decision to make regarding his future with the program.
Just four days following the Crimson Tide’s loss to the Spartans, news broke that Avery Johnson had been relieved of his duties as head coach. Everyone agreed that after finishing 18-16, a change in leadership was needed. A changing of the guard also appeared to be taking place — Petty, guard Kira Lewis Jr., forward Daniel Giddens and guard Dazon Ingram all joined the transfer portal in the coming days.
Giddens and Ingram left, with Giddens heading to Vermont and Ingram to Central Florida. However, Petty and Lewis opted to hold out until they discussed their options with their new head coach.
Enter Nate Oats.
Alabama Athletics
Oats arrived to find Tuscaloosa in disarray. Decades of disappointment had led to a lack of enthusiasm with the majority of fans. Spirits were at an all-time low.
Consequently, in his introductory press conference on the day of his hiring, Oats vowed to change that.
“We established a culture playbook a couple years ago,” Oats said about his four years as head coach at Buffalo. “We talk about max effort, that’s everything. Every workout, every weight room session, every practice, our guys are going to give max effort. We’re going to demand it out of them.
“Continuous growth is one. We’re going to get better every day. We want to be better today than yesterday. We’re going to get guys that want to get in the gym that want to work on their own. If the NCAA only allows us so many hours with the guys, if that’s all the hours they put in, we’re never going to get where we need to get. We’re going to get a culture that they’re in to get better every day. That goes for academics-wise. We’re going to get better.
“We’re going to give max effort, continuous growth, then we talk about selfless love. We’re going to teach our guys, young men, how to love each other, love this community, treat each other well.”
Needless to say, the words that came out of Oats’ mouth resonated with both Petty and Lewis (who ended up being a first-round pick in the 2020 NBA Draft). Both opted to stay, and the shape of Alabama basketball’s future began to form.
For Jones and Reese, the decision came a little easier. Neither entered the transfer portal, both opting to ride the wave out with their new head coach.
To Jones, the idea of transferring was an option that he had never considered.
“When I decided to come to Alabama, that was me committing for the long haul,” Jones said at SEC Media Days in 2019. “I was going to be here, regardless. When Coach Oats came in, I did my research on him and I thought, ‘Why would I leave?’ He has had success everywhere he has been at.
"I am ready to roll with him.”
Flash forward to the present day, and that attitude has made all the difference.
Alabama Athletics
Last Saturday, Alabama basketball clinched its ninth regular-season SEC title in program history — its first since 2002. With the team celebrating on the court and the fans — albeit socially distanced — doing the same in the stands, it was clear that Oats and the team’s three seniors had done it.
They had brought Alabama basketball back.
“It means a lot,” Petty said following the team’s 64-59 SEC-clinching victory at Mississippi State. “It basically just proves to everybody the hard work, the dedication that this team have and just the dedication us four seniors have. We stuck through here for a lot and we grinded it out and we see our results so I think that just shows a lot about our character and about our drive and dedication.”
Now, back to 2019.
For Petty, Jones and Reese’s sophomore season, all three of the players’ numbers were less than ideal.
- Petty started just 17 games, and totaled 59 threes — a number that he is currently tied with in the present season with still at least four games left on the schedule.
- Jones attempted just 21 threes his final season under Johnson, making only six of them. He managed just 119 free throws — a number that he has already surpassed in 2020 with 150.
- Reese, however, arguably had the most improvement. Garnering no starts his sophomore season, Reese averaged 6.3 points off the bench and just 2.5 rebounds a game.
All of that has changed.
Oats has constantly reiterated the core values that he preached in his introductory press conference: max effort, continuous growth and selfless love. With the trio of Petty, Jones and Reese alone, that philosophy has not only worked, but thrived at Alabama.
To the coach, though, this team’s success stems from those crucial days back in 2019, when he was able to convince the now-seniors to remain committed to what they had started from the moment that they first donned a crimson and white jersey.
“If they didn’t buy in like they have, then we’re not doing this,” Oats said on Saturday night. “They’ve been leaders — it’s their team. I tell them all the time ‘I’m going to be coaching for, Lord willing, a lot of years. You only get so much playing time, like, so many years to play. It’s your team.’ They’ve taken complete ownership of the team.”
Heading into the final week of the regular season:
- Petty is averaging 12.8 points and five rebounds per game.
- Jones is shooting .488 from beyond the arc and is averaging six rebounds per game along with registering 42 steals on the season with 26 blocks — all efforts that have earned him a spot as a Naismith Defensive Player of the Year semifinalist as well as a frontrunner for SEC Player of the Year.
- For Reese, in roughly 15.9 minutes per game, he is shooting .352 from the floor and has amassed 12 steals and 13 blocks.
While Reese might not appear on a stat sheet to the same degree as Petty or Jones, he serves as possibly the best example of how Oats’ philosophy has altered the course of the program. Gone are the days of poor effort and lack of hustle at both ends of the court. Diving for loose balls, making tough physical plays and mentally enduring through adversity has become not just the norm, but the nature of this Alabama basketball program.
Not many could have predicted the sudden drastic change that has come over the Crimson Tide prior to Oats’ arrival in 2019. While the team needed change, and Oats supplied the means to that change, it was ultimately up to the players to buy into the process and execute that change of mindset.
“They wanted the change,” Oats said. “They wanted to change the narrative of Alabama basketball. They wanted to change what people thought about Alabama basketball and they did it. You can’t just talk about it. You have to go out and perform like it. You gotta work. All those hours they’ve spent in the gym when nobody’s watching late at night — I mean, Herb Jones is shooting 50-percent from three on the year — nobody predicts that kind of stuff two years ago.
“Their work outside of the required stuff, their leadership every day, how hard they play in practice.”
When looking back on all of the changes that Petty, Jones and Reese have endured since first signing with Alabama, their combined career arcs have been nothing short of remarkable. Not only did they commit to a program that had seen struggles, but even when the going got tougher in Tuscaloosa, and the reset button was pushed, they still stayed with it, creating a lasting impression.
Jones said that believing in that new process is what propelled him and his teammates to this point.
“We went through a whole lot in the past years,” Jones said. “None of us transferred. We just stuck through it and we just stuck it out and just kept grinding and believing the process.”
Saturday at Mississippi State, Alabama shot the ball poorly and couldn’t find much rhythm on offense. In years past, it was a game that the Crimson Tide might have lost. Now, though, combining the dedication and effort of the three key seniors along with their desire for continuous growth and selfless love for their teammates, this season will be remembered for years to come as the year that Alabama basketball got back on track.
It's all a result of not just effort, but championship effort.
“If you look, Reese is 1-for-5, Petty’s 2-for-9, Herb’s 1-for-9 — like, they all shot the ball poorly and they played super hard and that’s what we’ve tried to instill,” Oats said. “You can win games and not play well on offense if your effort is championship-level effort and that’s what they had tonight and it started with those three guys.”
