How Nate Oats, Alabama Managed Comeback Victory at Tennessee

No. 17 Alabama was made "fully aware" of the stakes riding on Saturday evening's road game against No. 22 Tennessee.

The Crimson Tide came into the contest on a 7-game win streak, however, UA had lost its last five games against the Volunteers and head coach Rick Barnes. It seemed like this one was over and Tennessee would claim the crown again after going up by 13 points. But Alabama pulled together and came out on top 71-69.

"I've got to give a lot of credit to our players just for having an attitude that they never gave up," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said after the game. "When you think about it, none of these guys has ever beaten Tennessee. They were on a 5-game winning streak before we beat them, that's why (Alabama) was so fired up. They knew what struggle we had against these guys."

Crimson Tide guard Labaron Philon Jr. hit the game-winning shot with under 23 seconds remaining. It was Alabama's first lead of the entire match. So, after being down 40-28 at halftime, how did Oats and company manage a comeback?

"We showed some adaptability on defense," Oats said. "Coach (Brian) Adams did a really good job making adjustments. We wouldn't get stops, so at some point we had to figure out how we needed to outscore them a little bit. So we kind of went with a four-guard lineup with Amari (Allen) at the four. So, between Preston (Murphy), B.A. and (Chris) Fleming, you know, good suggestions. Thought our coaching staff did a really good job."

Giving up offensive rebounds and turning the ball over played a big role in Alabama's early deficit. In fact, with a little over five minutes remaining in the first half and Tennessee up by 10, the combination of the Vols' offensive rebounds (11) and the Crimson Tide's turnovers (7) equaled 18. UA scored 16 total points at the time.

"The players, they made things difficult on them with some of the shots they had to take. They still had way too many O-boards, but they had 16 in the first half and only had nine in the second half. So, nine is still a lot. No coach should be happy with giving up 25 O-boards, but we did cut it from 16 to nine and it was enough to win the game."

As Oats said, Alabama was able to grab more defensive boards in the second half, but it was far from perfect. Forward Aiden Sherrell, whom Oats dubbed the game's MVP, had six rebounds in the period. In terms of offense, the deficit was trimmed numerous times, but Tennessee would proceed to regain a respectable lead.

Crimson Tide guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. did a stellar job of making sure the game didn't get out of hand during the latter period. He finished with a team-high 25 points on 8 of 12 from the field, including 6 of 9 from deep.

Fellow guard Aden Holloway also came up big in the second half by scoring 10 points in the period on a perfect 4 of 4 shooting. This is in addition to Philon scoring 13 of UA's final 18 points. Philon, Wrightsell and Sherrell were the only Alabama players to shoot free throws the entire game, but all three of them took advantage at the charity stripe.

"It's a good thing we were able to shoot the ball a little bit better. We had 10 threes, they only had four. We went to the [free-throw] line and were 11 of 13. The biggest keys for us going into this game were our defensive rebounding, which we did not do a very good job of at all, and then not fouling — you just can't put this team at the free-throw line.

"I thought we kept them off the free-throw line pretty well. I don't know if it was us not fouling or just a lack of fouls called, period, in the game. But we were able to keep them off the free-throw line, which was Point No. 2 after the defensive rebounding."

Saturday night's coaching adjustments and the unified response from the players resulted in Alabama gaining sole possession of the No. 2 spot in the SEC standings with two games remaining. The Crimson Tide's final week of the regular season will consist of a road game against Georgia on Tuesday, March 3, and an Iron Bowl of Basketball rematch at home on Saturday, March 7.