Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama exhibition vs. Florida State
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama men’s basketball team defeated Florida State, 109-105, in an exhibition game in Boutwell Auditorium on Thursday. After the Crimson Tide’s preseason win over the Seminoles, head coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters. Here is everything he said.
Oats’ opening statement…
“It’s good to play somebody else. Florida State’s gonna be markedly improved from last year. A lot of respect for Luke and his staff. They came in and put a pretty good roster together. Their playing style is similar to us. They get up and down. Exposed us in different ways, which is good. We want to play good teams. They’re good. Our transition D got exposed. Our defensive rebounding got exposed. And then they turned us over way too much. Our three guys that are primary ball-handlers — Labaron, Holloway and Amari — each had three turnovers each. Fifteen turnovers as a team is not great. A lot of different areas to improve, and somehow, we still figured out a way to win the game. So, a lot of credit to them.
“Labaron got downhill, was able to finish at the rim, shot it well from three. Holloway didn’t have a great shooting night, but he still ended with 20 points. He got fouled, got to the free-throw line and converted at the line. And then Houston was pretty consistent. I thought he had a pretty good night for us. It was good for Taylor. He was at Florida State last year, and he goes 3-of-4 from three. I thought he was pretty solid for us. Gotta do a better job on the glass, but he made shots for us. We needed all those threes he hit. Good for us to play somebody else. We got exposed on some stuff, and we go back and start getting better at it.”
Oats on Labaron Philon…
“It’s great to get him back from the draft. He’s trying to play his way up in the draft. I think his ability to get downhill, create offense, I think it’s been good. I think you’ll see a lot of that with the shooting we’re able to put on the floor. They didn’t have everybody. We didn’t have Wrightsell, which he can really shoot, too. I think if you put a combination of a Holloway, Houston Mallette, Wrightsell, Taylor Bol Bowen up on the floor — and Aiden Sherrell can really shoot it. This wasn’t the best game for him with the pace that they played at and their bigs that he can guard, getting in foul trouble and fouling out. But we can put some shooting on the floor and open up the floor up for Labaron to get downhill. I thought it was a good night for him.”
Oats on Philon’s leadership…
“He was more vocal. He’s got play suggestions. He’s thinking the game, getting guys together. I think he’s gotta do a better job on defense. Gotta do a better job getting back on defense and getting our defense set. But he was defintiely talking more than he was last year, which was good. He needs to take more ownership of the team because he’s gonna have the ball in his hands quite a bit this year.”
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Oats on what he learned about the team’s ability to close…
“I thought we didn’t do a great job on the defensive end closing. We did a pretty good job offensively. We didn’t turn it over and made free throws. We just didn’t get defensive rebounds and gave up threes late. So, offensively, we closed pretty well. Defensively, we’ve gotta find a group that can get stops and rebounds. We didn’t close the half well at all. I believe we gave up a 13-2 run to close the half. I think we were up 45-35 and then going down one like the last three or four minutes. So, we’ve gotta do a better job on both sides of the ball closing half, and defensively, we’ve gotta close the game better.”
Oats on what he saw from the freshmen…
“I thought Davion Hannah was really good in his minutes, played hard, especially after he kind of got a little rough spell. He led us in rebounding with seven in 16 minutes. Plays hard, makes athletic plays. I thought he stepped to the line, made free throws. Made a big three over there. So, really happy for him. Amari, the ball was in his hands quite a bit for a young freshman. Too many turnovers, but I thought he showed some flashes of some really good stuff. And London, London’s gonna be fine. He hit the one three, if I remember right. He didn’t get as many minutes. We’ve gotta get him to do a little bit better job on the glass. But I think he’ll come. I think he’ll get there for us.”
Oats on Keitenn Bristow…
“He’s gonna be that Blue Collar guy. Comes in, gets O boards, makes big plays on defense. Shoot, he was big when we needed to win the game. He was our best big defensively, rebounding-wise tonight. We’re gonna need him to play some small-ball five at times like he did tonight.”
Oats on Taylor Bol Bowen facing his former team…
“He wanted to play well, obviously. But there were no extra discussions on that. I mean, it’s a new staff. It’s almost an entire new roster. It’s not like it’s the same program he left.”
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