Nate Oats believes this could be Alabama’s ‘best shooting team’ in his tenure

It’s important for every basketball team to have at least one or two knockdown shooters, but Nate Oats thinks Alabama has several. The Crimson Tide coach raved about his squad’s outside shooting ability during a recent press conference roughly a month to go until tip-off of the 2025-26 season.

Oats spoke highly of several of his players, in particular highlighting guards Aden Holloway, Latrell Wrightsell and Houston Mallette. Based on his early assessment, he thinks this group could be the best shooting team he’s had in his seven seasons in Tuscaloosa.

“I think we’ve got potentialy to be the best shooting team we’ve had here,” Oats said. “We’ve been shooting it very well. Obviously, we know Holloway can shoot it, Wrightsell can shoot it. Houston’s been really shooting it. …We’ve got those three guards that shoot it well. We’ve also got London Jemison, who’s got the potential to be a great shooter here once he kind of figures out how we want to play.

“We’ve got two 7-footers that can make shots. Labaron (Philon Jr.)‘s shooting it better, Amari Allen can make shots. I think we’ve got a lot of guys that can shoot it well and I think that plays into the way we want to play on the offensive end.”

Both Holloway and Wrightsell shot over 40% from beyond the arc last season as Alabama shot 35.3% as a team. That mark ranked just 100th in the country, but Oats believes with the additions he’s made this offseason it should go up.

Mallette transferred in from Pepperdine, where he shot 41.5% from 3-point range last season. Philon should also be in line to take a step forward after starting 29 games as a freshman a year ago.

The health of Wrightsell will be important to monitor, as he played only eight games last season before suffering an Achilles injury. Nate Oats said he expects him to be ready to go for this season, though, and immediately pick up where he left off as one of the team’s best shooters.

“You wanna talk about Wrightsell, he’s been unbelievably great in the whole rehab process,” the coach explained. “I think he’s coming along. He’s probably where he needs to be. When we were practicing today, we kind of had him on a little bit of a load management deal bringing him back so we don’t injure him somewhere else.

“So he hasn’t been able to do that much stuff for almost a year. He’s been back, he’s been doing some live stuff, just a little bit. Obviously, we keep his reps short, but I think he’s been great.”

Alabama will get the first opportunity to show off its shooting ability in an exhibition game against Florida State. Tip off for that contest is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT on Oct. 16 in Tuscaloosa.