Alabama Set to Face 'MMA, Wrestling, Football' Style of St. John's Basketball

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No matter the school's status, going head-to-head with a legendary head coach will cause a lot of stress leading up to game day.

No. 15 Alabama men's basketball is set to face No. 5 St. John's at 11 a.m. in Madison Square Garden.

The Crimson Tide has been preparing for a St. John's team led by head coach Rick Pitino, who has been a college basketball powerhouse for decades. In fact, Alabama head coach Nate Oats was born in the same year that Pitino got his first college coaching gig as an assistant for Hawaii.

The Naismith Basketball Hall-of-Famer recently called Alabama "the most unique team" in the nation. This is due to a variety of factors, including the fact that the Crimson Tide led the country in pace and points per game last season. Pitino said that playing Alabama will be like a track meet, so Oats described on Friday what it will be like playing St. John's.

"A football match," Oats said. "They're tough and physical. MMA, wrestling, football. We're still playing basketball, they're going to call some fouls, but you can't call every foul. There's going to be plenty of fouls that they get away with. We're going to have to match their physicality.

"Coach Pitino is one of the first guys to really embrace the three-point line back at Providence [from 1985-87], that play fast themselves. Those Kentucky teams he's had [from 1989–1997], shoot, he wasn't trying to slow it down, that's for sure. So he's not a stranger playing fast himself."

Pitino has won two National Championships with two different schools and has been to seven NCAA Tournament Final Fours with three different schools. That said, Oats and company knocked him out in the first round of the 2021 NCAA Tournament when he was at Iona. But Pitino has the most recent laugh, as on Nov. 25, 2021, Iona beat Alabama 72-68.

Iona held Alabama to its fewest three-point attempts in both of those seasons. So, what does Pitino do so well against Oats when it comes to limiting shots from deep?

"He's a really good coach," Oats said. "They figure out what you do best and they take you out of it. Can we score at the rim when they take away all of the threes? Can we get out and transition on them?

"It's a lot easier to take away threes in the half-court than it is in transition. We've got to get out in transition and attack them early before they get set, because when they're set, he's got his guys trained to style them.

"He came in immediately and made [St. John's] one of the best teams in the country, and they won the Big East last year. We're not the only program he takes away what they do best. They're going to take away the three-point line, honestly, they do a good job of that."

Tipoff between these two ranked programs is set for 11 a.m. CT on Fox Sports 1.

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