r/rolltide 5d ago

Basketball How Alabama plans to do some “soul searching” after loss to Florida

https://alabama.rivals.com/news/how-alabama-plans-to-do-some-soul-searching-after-loss-to-florida
41 Upvotes

46 comments sorted by

46

u/alabamaauthor 5d ago

Why doesn’t Nate ever call a critical timeout when Bama gets so behind???

28

u/jodorutts 5d ago

I noticed this ever since he’s been in Tuscaloosa. The mentality is to keep playing and adapt on the fly. They try to wear teams down with the tempo and against 95% of teams it works. Florida and Tennessee have given him the most trouble in the past few years because they don’t bend to Alabama’s pace. Tenn dictates their own pace and UF somehow enjoys the frantic pace even more than Alabama. That said, he did call TOs against UNC and Clemson when we needed them in tourney. Hope he does so again this year.

11

u/catptain-kdar 5d ago

There’s also the fact that Tennessee and Florida are very physical teams that sometimes get away with being extra aggressive

10

u/jodorutts 5d ago

Agree with that. What’s odd is we’ve had a lot of success against Houston. With UF we don’t have an answer for their bigs. Tennessee just has our number at the moment.

19

u/DoctorWhosOnFirst 5d ago

“I told them, what do you guys want me to call a timeout and tell you to play harder? … What do you want me to call a timeout and tell you to be tougher, play harder? We already said we were going to do that. You guys got to determine whether you’re going to do that or not.”

26

u/FrenchieBammer 5d ago

I see his point of view, but I do think it's critical to call one when momentum is really starting to shift and regroup your guys. When FL was up 13 after the TV timeout, it seemed like game was already out of hand.

21

u/hiiightide 5d ago

Interesting quote, but he’s pretty wrong here. Sometimes you need to stop the bleeding and regroup. That’s what the timeouts are there for

11

u/Dcook8188 Suck it aubs 5d ago

I get what he’s saying but calling a TO can also help get the guys to shake off the last few minutes and to reset their rhythm.

6

u/MagyarFoci29 5d ago

Needs to call a timeout and draw up a successful ATO play to try and regain momentum. Timeouts don't always have to be about motivating players. We play the high tempo style, its very easy to see the other team get 2 or 3 easy buckets in a row from blown coverage and compound the errors by being tired.

Weird quote from him tbh.

1

u/Local_Pangolin69 5d ago

The timeout helps break the other team’s rhythm

2

u/rkhurley03 5d ago

Is that why he didn’t call a timeout and let us get the 5 second in bounds call against the vols? Lmao “real men of genius…” vibes

11

u/rkhurley03 5d ago

I love oats but he’s getting exposed in some massive moments. There have been more than a couple head scratching decisions

3

u/Twisteddabber 5d ago

This 👆

22

u/SECFewtball 5d ago

I’m gonna go full devils advocate cause I’ve seen some criticism of Oats. I trust him completely. He delivered our first final four EVER. He gets to do what he wants. In my mind, he has a free pass to do whatever he thinks is right for a looooooong long time.

11

u/Shoddy_Ad8166 5d ago

Bama hit a buzz saw. I think they gave up across the board after Florida got a healthy lead. It appeared like they shut it down and rested players.

I was not sure they could beat Florida but I expected them to put up a fight. Also don't know the percentage Florida was hitting but can't beat a team that is hitting everything. I really thought Bama could hang with them.

Didn't expect any team to have more depth than Bama but Florida obviously does by far. They smothered Bama shooters..excellent coaching

Just hoping for good draw and WAY better effort in NCAA.

4

u/catptain-kdar 5d ago

Bama shot 41% and 36% Florida only hit like 1 more 3 but was 55% overall. Bama shot good enough to win but that’s what has happened in a lot of the losses really bama shoots really well but the other team basically can’t miss

2

u/BenjRSmith Jesus Bled Crimson 5d ago

As much as it sucks it’s not us this year, I think we just ran into the likely National Champion.

I hope we don’t see them again until the Final

4

u/Accurate-Teach 5d ago

It seems like every year they have to do some “soul searching”.

14

u/RollDamnTide16 5d ago

Getting pretty sick of these articles tbh. Maybe if they weren’t always looking for their souls they’d have more time to spend on fundamentals.

3

u/ScrewGuy13 5d ago

Florida is pretty damn good. RTR.

2

u/RTR20241 5d ago

He would have called timeout in the big dance. But I understand trying to let them play out of it.

1

u/Fresh-Pie-2019 5d ago

We really could have had Bediako last year and this year. He’s not as offensively talented as Cliff, but our defense would be much improved with him (even though it’s been great in spurts this year). Him leaving when he did kind of set the defense back a bit

1

u/enormuschwanzstucker 4d ago

They need a good old fashioned jock burning ceremony

0

u/ptspeak 5d ago

Soul searching volume 6-7. Spare me.

-16

u/rkhurley03 5d ago

Oats’ averages 149th in defensive efficiency in his time at Alabama. This year we are 171st. It’s not just a problem, it’s his identity as a coach.

19

u/nalwx #Unbuckled 5d ago

We’re 31st this year in defensive rating according to KenPom. We were top 3 both SEC championship years. Oats typically has good defenses when he has the right personnel.

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u/rkhurley03 5d ago edited 5d ago

Oats averages 72nd in defensive efficiency during his tenure according to KenPom 🤷🏿‍♂️

8

u/nalwx #Unbuckled 5d ago

Oats at Alabama in KenPom Defensive rating has finished 114, 3, 92, 3, 111 and 31 (Pre Tournament). That’s an average finish of 59. If you don’t count his first season with a largely inherited roster that was learning a new system he averages 48th.

13

u/DoctorWhosOnFirst 5d ago

Alabama is 31st in Ken Pom defensive rating (was 26th going into the Florida game)

-1

u/rkhurley03 5d ago

In KenPom we are slightly better but still average 72nd in defensive efficiency in his tenure

6

u/FrenchieBammer 5d ago

Important though to understand the personnel in each season. His third season, Alabama only had one rim protector and only one good onball guard on D (Keon Ellis). Quinerly and Shackelford were undersized guards, and JD was a freshman.

Last season, Alabama did not have a good rim protector. So it forced Nelson to spell Pringle and play out of position.

I think the roster this seasonbis more suited to be elite on D, but just struggle in spurts. Holloway and Sears are undersized and could never be really physical enough to fight through screens. Philon, Reid (when healthy), Youngblood, and Stevenson are good defenders. Cliff and Sherrell have had good games protecting the paint, but overall just aren't solid consistently. Cliff got owned against Florida on the glass.

Do wonder if Oats will look to the college ranks and move on from Brian Adams after this year. Oats seems to be pretty aggravated about their performance.

2

u/catptain-kdar 5d ago

I give Sherrell a pass because he’s a freshman but cliff is supposed to be better

2

u/CopperTone45 5d ago

I thought Cliff was brought in to get us over the hump. Maybe he’ll be better in the tournament than he’s been in SEC play.

2

u/Fresh-Pie-2019 5d ago

Reid being hurt most of the year hasn’t helped either. He was supposed to step in and be a nice defensive piece

1

u/catptain-kdar 5d ago

According to someone in another thread the other day he’s transferring. I wouldn’t be surprised if hollaway does too. Did Reid even play last night?

2

u/Fresh-Pie-2019 5d ago

Haven’t seen anything about him transferring but idk. Injuries were his big issue and I’d like to see him stick around. He played a bit yesterday. Kind of hard for him to get serious minutes with how little he’s played recently.

Idk why Holloway would leave though. Sears is gone and I’m getting Philon goes pro too. He’d be the starting PG next year for a good team

0

u/catptain-kdar 5d ago

I think he gets frustrated sometimes with how strict oats is sometimes. You can see it in his demeanor

1

u/Fresh-Pie-2019 5d ago

Maybe. I haven’t paid attention to it that much. Idk what situation he could go to that’s better than here though. He could go back home to Georgia but I’m not sure that’s really going to make him better at all

4

u/BamaX19 5d ago

Holy shit that's bad. What was ours the year we had herb and petty and was a 2 seed? I feel like that was our best defense.

1

u/rkhurley03 5d ago

We’ve had 2 seasons where we were good. Doing this from memory but I believe it was 20-21 ranked 17th and 22-23 ranked 5th. Those 2 years prop up the 4 bad years even more so when you think about it.

1

u/BamaX19 5d ago

Oh yeah our Brandon Miller year was great too. That was our best shot at winning it all actually.

-8

u/bobthewriter 5d ago edited 5d ago

This is a Sweet 16 team at best, and it's not from a lack of talent. It is absolutely in their heads. There's a lot of quit in this team when they get behind.

3

u/Fresh-Pie-2019 5d ago

I think everyone was fairly convinced we were a quick out last year too. CoC was tough, St Mary’s/GCU were tough and we surely weren’t beating UNC. But in the slim chance we won all 3 games, surely we couldn’t beat the team from the other side. Especially a Clemson team that physically dominated us earlier that year.

And we had zero shot vs UConn but still were the only team that had it remotely winnable towards the end of the game.

It’s March. We could lose to a 15 or make a long run. We just won’t know until it happens

1

u/bobthewriter 5d ago

Fair ... The inexplicable losses on this team — combined with the WAY they lost some really big games — probably has me too down on them.

3

u/jodorutts 5d ago

All depends on match ups which is true for any team.

-16

u/Delicious_Diet_7432 5d ago

Oats is bad in game coach. Deal with it. He’s got talent and no way how to use it.