Nate Oats Called for Better Defense, and Alabama Basketball Responded
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — For Alabama Basketball, defense wins championships — literally.
In 2020-21 and 2022-23, the Crimson Tide was great on the defensive end. In 2021-22, Alabama was quite poor. Which seasons do you think resulted in SEC regular season and tournament championships?
That's right. The first two.
The Crimson Tide had been lackluster on defense in its first two wins against Morehead State and Indiana State. Earlier in the week, head coach Nate Oats continued to harp that the effort on defense needed to change. His team responded in a big way.
In Tuesday night's 102-46 win over South Alabama, Alabama (3-0) held the Jaguars (1-2) to 14-for-60 (23%) from the field and 5-for-29 (17%) from deep. The Crimson Tide forced the Jaguars into 12 turnovers. The overall effort was much better.
"That was a lot more like we're trying to get on the defensive end," Oats said. "I thought our effort was significantly improved from everybody on the team. I thought some guys really stepped up."
"They obviously didn't shoot it well. They missed some threes that we left them open [on] — we screwed up and they didn't make us pay. We were a lot better. We'll get whatever we need to clean up cleaned up tomorrow, get ready for Mercer. Our effort was better. I thought our guys played harder. Guys tried to cover each other's mistakes, took some charges. I was happy with the effort. Much, much better defensively than what we've been the first two games."
It's hard to be great on defense without a strong post presence. With Charles Bediako gone, Alabama needs Nick Pringle to step up. In the first two games, he struggled, and his minutes showed that. He took the challenge on Tuesday night, finishing with 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks in 18 minutes.
"I thought Nick Pringle was much better," Oats said. "I thought he challenged shots at the rim, even when he didn't block them."
"It was definitely a challenging week," Pringle said. "[Oats] was emphasizing rim protection — that's something I need to do as the starting [center]. I just took on the challenge and did what I needed to do. I just need to do that more on a consistent basis."
The Crimson Tide will look to continue its progress on the defensive end when it hosts Mercer at Coleman Coliseum on Friday night.
