Alabama's Depth 'Wore Out' Saint Mary's in Round of 32 Win

The Crimson Tide had six players score 10-plus points while only seven Gaels played quality minutes.

The Alabama Basketball Team huddles around Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats during an interview following the game against Saint Mary's at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, OH on Sunday, Mar 23, 2025. | Photo by Crimson Tide Photos / UA Athletics

CLEVELAND –– "I hope our depth comes into play. They're not as deep as us, but they also don't play as fast as us, so they don't need to be as deep as we do....They're comfortable playing seven guys. We're going to play all 10 of our guys. Now, how much each of them plays, I'm not sure right now, but we'll definitely use our depth, I just don't know to what extent yet."

This is the quote Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats gave on Saturday when asked about the differences between the 2-seed Crimson Tide's depth usage and 7-seed Saint Mary's number of players earning quality minutes.

Alabama runs the fastest-paced offense in the country as it came into the game leading college basketball in possessions per game with 78.8. Meanwhile Saint Mary's ranks 358th out of 364 with 65.5 possessions per contest. The Crimson Tide always push the tempo while the Gaels control the ball slowly.

However, Alabama got off to a strong start with its speed in the 80-66 NCAA Round of 32 victory as Saint Mary's had to change things up early. This only continued to work in the Crimson Tide's favor as head coach Nate Oats and company had six players score at least 10 points––one less than the number of Gaels players who saw quality minutes on Sunday night.

"I thought we wore them out, particularly towards the end of the first half," Oats said during the postgame press conference. "Like you said, they kind of play a seven-man rotation. [Ashton] Hardaway played just under two minutes, and then that was it for their eighth guy. So, seven guys played the bulk of the minutes. [Mitchell] Saxen played over 39, [Luke Barrett] played almost 37, [Augustas] Marciulionis over 34, [Jordan] Ross over 34. So four of their starters were over 34 minutes.

"If you look at us, we didn't have anybody over –– the most minutes –– Labaron [Philon] led us in minutes with 28 and seven seconds, and nobody had over 27 minutes really. And then we played, what, nine guys double-digit minutes. We got a lot of contributors."

Saint Mary's went 1 of 12 from the floor in the final minutes of the first half. Early into the second half, Gaels head coach Randy Bennett had to call a timeout after another strong start by the Crimson Tide, which was sparked by speed once again.

"I thought we kind of wore them out," Oats said. "It was probably a smart timeout. He's coached a lot of games, got to rest his guys, and he got a media timeout a minute later. I thought we were able to get into their lack of depth a little bit, and with the pace that they typically play, I don't think that ever really affects them.

"I think our depth, our tempo did get to them, but they're tough, they're physical. They ended up with 15 O-boards, which is way too many. But their offensive rebounding rate was 36 percent. That's a lot higher than what we wanted, but we ended up winning the second-chance points."

Alabama center Clifford Omoruyi and forward Grant Nelson were big factors in the second-chance points department as they each grabbed three offensive rebounds. Omoruyi finished with a double-double with 10 points, 11 total rebounds and two blocks. Nelson scored 12 points with eight total rebounds and a block.

Nelson helped get things started for Alabama on Sunday night with a big performance in the first half. But the same could be said for Crimson Tide guard Chris Youngblood, who led the team in scoring with 13 points (all coming in the first half), including a 3-for-3 clip from long range. Forward Mouhamed Dioubate played a big role in wearing Saint Mary's out late in the first half as he scored seven points down the stretch.

Consensus All-American First Team guard Mark Sears and Alabama sixth-man Aden Holloway helped lead the Tide late as they combined for 15 points in the second half. Overall, each of them scored 12 points.

It's worth noting that although freshman guard Labaron Philon didn't join the double-digit scorers club with his six points, he led Alabama in assists (5), steals (3), tied for the lead in blocks (2) and was third in rebounds with six.

2-seed Alabama will face 6-seed BYU on Thursday in Newark, N.J. in the Sweet 16.