Brian Adams Continuing Mission To Turn Alabama Into Defensive Juggernaut

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The "golden age" of Alabama basketball is officially in full swing. With four Sweet 16 appearances in the last five years, the Crimson Tide is enjoying its best period of success in program history. Head coach Nate Oats has earned the well-deserved title of offensive guru as he has taken Alabama to a Final Four and an Elite Eight in the past two seasons.

But there has been a common trend for the Crimson Tide when the team gets to these late-round games: defensive collapses. Oats' squad continually gets exposed on the defensive end in big games. There was the 2021 overtime loss to UCLA, where the Bruins went on a 7-0 run to start overtime and scored 88 on the day. Then the 2022 upset loss to Notre Dame, where Cormac Ryan shot 10-13 from the field for the Fighting Irish.

The 2023 upset loss to San Diego State was mostly on the offense, with Brandon Miller shooting 3-19 and the Crimson Tide committing 14 turnovers, but Alabama was unable to get any kind of stop in transition against a very average offensive Aztecs team. UConn proved too much for Alabama to handle down the stretch in the 2024 Final Four, although the Huskies were undoubtedly the best team in the field, and Duke scored 85 on the Crimson Tide last March to end the season for the team in sour fashion.

Defense has been the problem in Tuscaloosa, something Oats will be the first to admit.

"It's defense," Oats said. "The two years we were able to win the SEC regular season and tournament both, we were third in the country in defensive efficiency. We haven't been anywhere close to third these last two years. If we could get our defense back in the top 10, top five in the country, in defensive efficiency, I think that's the answer."

Alabama hired defensive-minded assistant Brian Adams to help shore up the defense following a 2023-24 season that saw no shortage of putrid defensive outings. Adams is a longtime NBA staffer who has worked as an assistant for numerous NBA teams, including the championship-winning 2008 Boston Celtics. While the Crimson Tide had its ups and downs last year, it is apparent that Adams' coaching had an impact as the team put together consistently solid performances on the defensive end.

"He (Adams) has done a great job," Oats said. "He's got a year in college now. Last year was his first year. I think he's much more aware. A lot of college offenses aren't what the NBA is running, so we've got to get better. We're going to run an NBA offense, that's what we guard in practice, but we got to still guard heavy post-ups, heavy flex action, stuff they don't run in the NBA too much, run a lot in college."

Adams, whom Oats referred to as "one of the best assistants in the country," made defense the top priority for the Crimson Tide this summer.

"I feel like we're emphasizing defense a lot more than we have in recent years," Latrell Wrightsell said. "Normally, we don't talk about defense until like June or July, but (this year) we talked about it in May. Just emphasizing it a lot more and getting our defensive concepts started in May. We started doing defense before we did offense, and that's rare to hear about in Alabama."

Wrightsell is the lone player left on the team from the 2024 Final Four appearance, meaning he is also the only player to have played for the Crimson Tide before Adams was hired. He has noticed a clear shift in the mentality of players on that end of the court as he enters his third and final year in Tuscaloosa.

"A lot of guys that have come in are defensive oriented," Wrightsell said. "They start with defense, and then that translates to their offensive game. So we're really playing into everybody's ability perfectly as well."

At the end of the day, it is nearly impossible to forecast how Alabama's defense will fare this season. With five nonconference matchups against preseason AP Top 25 teams, it is almost inevitable that the Crimson Tide will have early struggles. The hope is that the extensive offensive work, along with these early tests, will turn Alabama into a battle-tested defensive juggernaut that will be able to shut down the best teams in the nation come March.

"I definitely think the defense will be better this season, 100%," fifth-year senior Houston Mallette said. "BA (Adams) really preaches it, and I think we've had a much more focused approach on it, an adamant approach. We pride ourselves on defense. You hear about Alabama, you think about how fast we play, how we shoot a lot of threes. None of that matters if you can't guard. If you want to win, you have to guard. I think it's good because we have to guard each other every day. Yeah, I think the defense will be a lot better."

Alabama's offense will, yet again, be among the best in the country. Oats has described this year's team as possibly "the best shooting team of my career." The Crimson Tide will score a lot of points, and they will do it, per usual, at a breakneck pace. Will the defense be able to hold its weight? The fate of Alabama's season is riding on the answer to the question.