Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama's 91-62 win over North Dakota

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — No. 15 Alabama basketball defeated North Dakota, 91-62, on Monday night at Coleman Coliseum to start the 2025-26 season. Following the 29-point victory, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats spoke to local reporters. Here is everything that Oats said.

Oats’ opening statement…

“I thought it was a good win to start with. We were able to get those freshmen some quality minutes. Even Collins, six minutes of action, was able to get five rebounds. So, he had some activity. But I thought London, Davion and Amari really helped getting them as many minutes as we could. I thought Amari did some really good things. Shoot, his stat line was pretty good. On the night, he was able to get 12-7-5 in only one turnover, led the team in plus-minus with a plus-30, won the Hard Hat, the blue-collar stuff. So, I think he was about the right stuff. I thought it was big to get — I thought Davion made some really good plays. London made some good plays. So we get those freshmen some quality minutes before we go play these next four games was big. 

“Labaron ended up with a career-high, which I think will probably get broken here pretty soon, I would think. But I thought he had some good stretches. We need him to be better on defense. We need him to take care of the ball better. But I thought he made some really good plays, showed what he’s capable of. 

“It’d be good to get some of these injured guys back. We’ll have to see where they come. They’re all day-to-day. Keitenn’s got an ankle injury. Holloway’s got a wrist injury. And Wrightsell’s got a finger injury. Wrightsell’s Achilles is fine. He just hurt his finger in the Furman game, re-hurt in practice. So, I think all three of those guys getting back would be big. We need some rebounding at the four spot. It’s really lacking right now, so Keitenn can help us with that. I think having extra handlers out there would probably hopefully help with the turnovers. We’ve got way too many turnovers. Our two exhibitions and all this one, I think we’re averaging 15 turnovers a game. 

“But all in all, for the first game, playing as many freshmen as we did as many minutes as we did, there’s a lot of good stuff we can get out of this game.”

Oats on Labaron Philon’s facilitating…

“I thought we could have done a better job giving him outlets against their aggressive pick-and-roll coverage. A few of his turnovers, he’s got to be better at. I thought we could have helped him a little more, though. I was a little disappointed with how we attacked their pick-and-roll coverage. As a group, not just the one handling it. But he’s going to have plenty of games where he’s got eight or more assists. Shoot, he’s going to have plenty of double-doubles, and if he gives us a little bit better effort on defense and rebounding stuff, he can push a triple-double here with what he’s capable of.”

Oats on the next step for Alabama’s freshmen…

“I think you see them get a little bit more comfortable with some of the decision-making. Amari, shoot, Amari’s pretty good. But I think Amari’s got more to him just kind of around the offense, moving guys around. I thought some of his defensive playmaking, he made some big plays on defense. I think Davion’s defensive intensity is there. I think he’d be a really great lockdown guy for us. He over-drove it. He had four turnovers, way too many for a guy that doesn’t handle it as much as he did. But I think he’ll learn from it. He’s really coachable. He’s a great kid. I think his effort, you saw his athleticism when he went up and got that dunk. But defensively, those two guys are long, athletic guards that can guard multiple positions. 

“And in London, he plays hard, he goes to the O-boards, he makes shots. He didn’t shoot it great tonight, but he’s a shooter. He hit the one three. I think he’s got a lot more in him as a shooter and even as a rebounder. He had two O-boards, but maybe we can get more out of him on the defensive glass, too.” 

Oats on Houston Mallette’s impact on the offensive glass…

“He plays so hard. I told our team in the locker room afterward, some of you guys are struggling to go get offensive rebounds. Taylor had zero. He had zero in the exhibition. He doesn’t get offensive rebounds ever. Go look at Houston, study Houston’s film. He goes every time. I mean, he had four O-boards. We had 11, but three of those were team O-boards. So there was eight offensive rebounds assigned to an individual, and Houston had half of them. He plays so hard, he has to ask to come out of the game. He gives so much effort. We’ve got a lot of guys on the team that are learning from him, but we have a few guys that need to learn how to play as hard as Houston plays. And if they did, we’d be a lot better team. 

“So, I think Houston can lead, because he’s the hardest-playing guy on the floor all the time. He’s the ultimate teammate. He gets super fired up whenever his teammates do well. Houston’s all about the right stuff, in my opinion. He’s a winner. He impacts winning at a high level. Amari led the team plus-minus with 30, but Houston and Labaron were right there at plus-29 when they were in the game. So, I think Houston does a lot to impact winning.”

Oats on Aiden Sherrell’s four blocks…

“Loved Aiden’s rim protection. We’ve been on him to protect the rim, and I thought he did exactly what we wanted him to do on that end. The four blocks, I’m really happy with what he gave us on the defensive end. Rebounded a lot better in the second half. He had zero at the half, ended up with four there in the second half on the defensive end. So defensively, protecting the rim, he rebounded a little bit better, but I thought in the second half he picked it up on the defensive end.”

Oats on Philon’s improvement as a driver and finisher…

“I think he’s gotten stronger. I think you saw him bump off driving, he finished. He’s able to get downhill. I think he’s got to get fouled more. You saw how good Sears was getting to the free-throw line. I think Baron’s got to get better at that. But he was a way more aggressive driver getting downhill. I think Coach Fleming’s… Coach Fleming came from the NBA for 10 years. He brought a little bit different offensive philosophy in some regards to open up the floor a bit more. Maybe give Labaron a few less ball screens sometimes. I thought today we should have done a little bit more of that or just keep the ball screen away and let him come downhill, attack in the slots early. I think he’s been pretty good at it. I think it fits him pretty well. So, I think Labaron’s going to show a lot this year.”

Oats on if he’s ever had this many Wisconsin guys on the floor at one time…

“I’ve never had this many Wisconsin guys on a team. I don’t think we’ve had any on the team down here since I’ve been here. So it was great. I mean, you see how hard they play. Amari and Davion were both high, high effort, a lot of tough plays. I know Amari won the blue collar. Amari won it with 22.5, and Davion was second with 19.5. So, the Packers didn’t quite come through for us. I don’t know what this shenanigans in the front row tonight is about, but the Bears looked a little better than the Packers. But the Wisconsin kids gave us an effort tonight, that’s for sure.”

Oats on Mallette’s leadership…

“You saw his effort. He’s the hardest-playing kid on the floor every time he steps on. You saw his enthusiasm for his teammates’ play. I’ve never met a kid so engaged in making everybody better and making sure that the team’s doing what they’re supposed to be doing when he’s on the floor. Asks a lot of really good questions, plays super hard. I mean, he has to come out of the game pretty much every time he’s in. He just empties his tank and then says, ‘Coach, I need to come out.’ And we get him back in, and then he empties it again. We need more guys willing to empty the tank and come out. Doing all that, he still ended up with quite a few minutes. I mean, he played over 28 minutes tonight. Shoot, if you go in, you empty your tank and you ask for a break, I’m not going to sit you there for long. If you play that hard, you need to get back in pretty quick. I just think he’s about winning. He’s about being a great teammate. We’ve got Wrightsell that’s hurt right now. Those two fifth-year seniors, I think, can really help lead this team. It was great to see Houston be able to play that many minutes tonight.”

Oats on how prepared he thinks the team is for its upcoming four-game stretch…

“I think this game, and obviously we would like to have everybody healthy, but we didn’t, so it forced us to play these freshmen a lot more. I think it helped getting them to get some game minutes. We’re going to have to play significantly better Saturday than we did tonight. But we will. We’ll have some guys ready, and I think we’ll have rotation a little bit better. We’ll put the guys that play hard, because St. John’s plays extremely hard. That’s why they’re good. We’ll put the hard-playing guys on the team. We’ll put the guys in that can take care of the ball. We’ll make sure we’ve got a little bit better plan to hopefully attack the pressure on the defensive end. But we’re going to get better over these next four games, that’s for sure. I don’t know what our record’s going to be after the four, and that doesn’t really concern me as much as getting better every game. We’ve got to be at our best come SEC play.

“I think playing a bunch of cupcakes and teams that don’t really expose your weaknesses, if you will, like we’ll get exposed here in these next four games, I just don’t think we get that much better. We’ll play a really good St. John’s team on the road at Madison Square Garden, back home against a really good Purdue team. We’ve got to go to Chicago and play Illinois, and then we get Gonzaga. They’re all very different teams, and they’re all very good teams, and we’re going to have to play really well to beat any of them. No matter what our record is, after the first five games of the season, going into that UNLV game, we’ll be significantly better going into that game than we are right now.” 

Oats on Noah Williamson…

“He’s smart. He’s very skilled. You saw him make the one play in transition with the left-hand layup finish. Most seven-footers aren’t making plays like that. He did have four rebounds in 14 minutes, which is good. He’s not afraid to put his body on somebody. We’ll put the ball in his hands a decent amount. He had no turnovers, which is good. He took the one three, missed it, but he’s a capable shooter. He’s going to make shots. He’s right at the mid-30s three-point shooter. When he’s got his feet set and stepping in, he makes them at a pretty high clip. So, I think having another seven-footer that can rebound it, stretch the floor, use his body, set good screens, the skill level he’s got, put the ball in his hands on the perimeter to draw the other team’s rim protector away from the rim will really help our offense. I think he’s a pretty good defender. He’s got quick hands. We’ll have to put him in different types of ball-screen coverages. He’s not the vertical athlete, maybe, that some of our other guys are, but he’s got some athleticism in some other areas.”

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