What Nate Oats Said After Alabama Basketball's Win Over Auburn

No. 7 Alabama basketball took down No. 1 Auburn on the road 93-91 in overtime via a game-winning buzzer-beater by guard Mark Sears.

Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats spoke to the media after the game. Here's everything he had to say:

Full Transcript

Opening Statement:

“I know the game wasn’t meaningful as far as SEC regular season championship results or any of that, but it looked to me like they were trying to get the win. They brought their best guys. They didn’t sit Denver [Jones]. [Johni] Broome’s obviously playing well. He kind of killed us with 34 and eight [rebounds], made some big shots. We won against them on their Senior Night, and I think we showed what we’re capable of being moving forward.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a group of guys. Nobody in the country has got anything close to the 7-game stretch we had to close the year. To come up with a win against the No. 1 team on their home floor who happens to be our arch-rival to close it out after the adversity we faced. We could have easily folded. We had the tough loss at Tennessee. The Florida game we didn’t look great. We bounced back and come in here like we did.

“And things didn’t go perfect. Shoot, the points off turnovers were 20-10. We had 15 turnovers. We have got to do a better job on some things. But I just kind of challenged these guys, ‘Let’s be the hardest-playing team, toughest team, most together no matter what happens. Things won’t be perfect. Just stick together and keep playing hard.’ And I thought that’s what they did.

“I mean, Grant [Nelson] obviously had a really good game, was aggressive early. Mark [Sears], they were gonna make sure he didn’t get anything easy. They did a good job on him defensively, but he stuck in there. Attitude was great, played hard for us on defense. He got seven assists to only one turnover. And then when we needed him late, he came through and delivered. He bailed me out because that play design wasn’t all that great, to be honest with you. The thing that was great about it was it was in a pretty good player’s hands. So he delivered for us there late.

“Hopefully, this will get our guys some confidence going into the SEC Tournament. We’ve got the (double) bye until Friday. We have got to get our legs back up under us. We have got to get our confidence back. And I think this is a big start.”

On Mark Sears and Grant Nelson's Bounce-Back Performance After Senior Night:

“I think it was big. I met with those guys earlier in the week after we lost to Florida, asked them how their bodies were. I kind of explained we’ve got the bye until Friday wrapped up. The only thing still in the books is a three or four [seed].

"‘You guys want to play everybody against Auburn?’ It was a resounding, ‘Yeah. We don’t like those guys. We owe them one. We’ll play them looking to win.’ Which is what I wanted to hear, but I wanted them to make that decision. They did and brought it. I think it was huge.

“This was definitely not a game Auburn was OK with losing. They put everybody out there to play as many minutes as they could to get the win. So for our seniors to come in here in the last game of the regular season and win at Auburn, I think gives them some confidence. It means a lot for these guys. It kind of makes up for a few of these losses we’ve had in this tough 7-game stretch. We’ve just got to get everybody rested, healthy, bodies fresh, ready to go in Nashville.”

If Alabama Did Enough to Earn a No. 1 seed:

“That’s a tough question. I don’t know. You look at some of the wins we have, they give you a lot more credit for road wins. Houston is going to be a 1-seed. We beat them on the neutral. Auburn is going be a 1-seed, for sure. We beat them on their own floor. So I think with our quality win we’ve got, we certainly would be in the mix. It’s just do we have too many losses? We lost four of these ones here in the last seven, which wasn’t ideal. But I also don’t think anybody in the country has played a 7-game stretch like we’ve played either. So we’ve fought, battled, come up with a big win. We’ll see. If we’re not a 1-seed and we’re a 2-seed, that’s not the worst thing.”

On How This Win Compares to the End of Last Year's Regular Season:

“I know last year we struggled a little bit, and the other year we had the injuries two years before that. But the other years, we finished pretty well. We’ve won two SEC Tournament championships. So I think it depends on the group you’ve got, to be honest with you. If guys that are still playing for each other, together want to keep playing together, I feel like this group is that way. We challenged these guys.

“We had Coach [Patrick] Murphy from softball come speak to our guys last year and kind of used the term ‘Mudita.’ We’ve tried to adopt it again. Do we have the most mudita? Are they pulling for each other? Do they want each other to do well? I thought Sears embodied it pretty well tonight. He only had nine points. He was averaging just about 20. He had a bunch of 30-point games here lately. And he just kept playing hard, finding guys for assists. Cliff is 7-of-7. I’m not sure how many of his buckets were from Sears, but he did a really good job.

“This group wants to keep playing with each other. They like it. Last year, we didn’t finish the regular season or even the SEC Tournament well, but we got it together to make a Final Four run. So I think this group’s better overall. Hopefully, we’ve got some confidence going into the SEC Tournament, we’ll play better there in Nashville than that last group did. But we found a way to still get it together and make a run. Hopefully, we can get this group together a week earlier than last year’s group got it together. We already look like we’ve got a pretty good win here to close the regular season. So I think they’re headed in the right direction.”

On Grant Nelson's Performance and Usage:

“He’s an athletic big, and with the way he moves and attacks the rim, he gets banged up a little bit here and there. But I thought getting him downhill early was important. We need him to be aggressive. That transition and-1 he got hopefully got his confidence going. And I like the fact he went in to dunk the one, missed it. It didn’t really faze him. He just kept playing. I was happy with his aggressiveness. We need him playing aggressive. He was one of the best players in the country last year in March when we made our Final Four run. Hopefully, we get Grant Nelson in March back for another March run for us.”

On Keeping Alabama Cool Under Pressure:

“I told the guys we’re not doing anything dumb. We’re trying to win the basketball game on the scoreboard. We don’t need any cheap shots. All that does is give the other team free plays. It would have been nice if Chris [Youngblood] would have converted on those two on the [Flagrant] 2, but he was no longer available for his team. And I just told our guys, ‘Don’t do anything dumb. Let’s just be the hardest-playing, toughest, most-together team on the floor, and the score will take care of itself.

"We’re trying to win a basketball game. We’re not trying to win anything else. So whatever the cheap plays that they’ve had, we don’t need to do any of that stuff. We don’t need to do anything dumb and give them free points.’ And every point was needed tonight. It came down to the last possession. It came down to the last tenth of a second really.”

On Improvements in a Late-Game Situation:

“The improvements were more from the coaching staff. I was really disappointed with how I personally got our guys through that last 30 seconds against Tennessee. You use it. You learn. You talk through all different scenarios. Both sides of the ball, who do you have in? Tie game, who do you have in? Up three when they need a 3. It wasn’t perfect, but at least we talked through it. We had some sets in mind that we wanted. The one we ended up running, tie game late with 14 seconds in overtime, was not necessarily one that we’d been through. But I knew I wanted to get the ball in [Sears'] hands and we got it there.

“So I thought we did a better job. We still need to be better. I need to be better for our guys. Our guys have got to execute things a little bit better. Hopefully, we take Monday and Tuesday in practice and kind of go through some of these situations to be a lot better up in Nashville.”

On Mark Sears' Confidence in the Clutch:

“I just kept talking to him. ‘Be a great teammate. Play hard on D.’ We’re not worried about scoring points. We’ve established that as a team. The team met. We’re just trying to be the hardest-playing, best mudita team on the floor. Show your teammates a lot of mudita. He ended up playing over 40 minutes. They did a good job. I mean, they didn’t give them much free. So we as a coaching staff got to do a better job getting him freed up.

"I didn’t do a good enough job on that, but he hung in there and did a really good job keeping his attitude great, his energy. He ended up with seven assists. It wasn’t like he had a bad night. Shoot, he hit the game-winner, and he had seven assists and nine points. So he just didn’t have what we’re used to Mark having scoring-wise.”

On How Big Labaron Philon was Late in the Game:

“He was huge. That steal, layup kind of turned the whole course of the game there late. I thought he made some big plays, was pretty good on defense. He goes to the free-throw line, makes two huge free throws late. He’s got that it factor about him. I mean, he’s a confident kid.

"He’s a winner, plays hard, high-IQ guy. He made a huge 3 for us late. He didn’t shoot it great most of the game. That was the only one he hit. But he made some plays when it counted, and we’re gonna need him to keep doing that here to make a run in March.”

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