Nate Oats says Alabama's defense is 'a whole lot better' than last year

Alabama‘s basketball team is off to one of the hottest starts in the country this season, defeating two teams ranked No. 1 in the AP Polls when they beat them, and now find themselves ranked No. 4 in the country after an 8-1 start. The Crimson Tide’s elite play has been highlighted by some much-improved play on the defensive end of the floor, which head coach Nate Oats discussed this week.

“It’s been a whole lot better than it was last year, and to be honest with you, some of the guys that haven’t played heavy minutes that have before it’s not even always just a defensive thing, if you’re not playing well you’re probably not gonna play,” Oats said. “We’ve got a lot of depth, but particularly on defense, if you’re not going to give us everything you have and give us an effort we’re gonna find someone that will.”

Oats’ emphasis on defense has certainly paid off for Alabama so far this season, as he used an example with a player like senior Noah Gurley to illustrate individual buy-in and results on the defensive end of the floor.

“Shoot we really challenged Noah Gurley, I think the box score had him for six rebounds, we do our own stats off the video, he had eight rebounds in a short amount of time, we really challenged Noah. Noah’s rebounding a lot better than he’s ever rebounded, we just went against one of the best rebounding teams in the country in Houston and he came up with eight in fairly limited minutes,” Oats said.

The Crimson Tide currently lead the nation in rebounding, averaging 49.6 boards per game, which is six better than the next closest team. They’re also tied for sixth in the nation in blocks per game, but Oats was more curious about another defensive statistic.

“So I think you’re seeing it, guys are playing harder, giving a better effort, anybody look at what our defensive efficiency was?” Oats asked members of the media. “13th right now, so we’re 13th, we were 92nd at the close of last year I believe, we were third two years ago, so we’re going to keep pushing but 13’s a lot closer to three than it is to 92.”

Alabama’s defensive effort has been crucial to their early success, and Oats not only believes it can improve even more, but that he also has the solution for improving it.

“So we’re a lot better this year than we were last year and I think you guys can see it and I think we’ve still got room to grow, we’ve got some better defensive performances out there even. I think if our offense could get a little better, quit turning the ball over, our turnovers on offense are hurting our defensive efficiency numbers because they lay ups are given up off of the turnovers. So if we can get out offensive turnovers straightened out, that number would be even better than what it is right now,” Oats concluded.