Everything Nate Oats said following NCAA Tournament win over Maryland
Late Saturday night the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team dominated the Maryland Terrapins 73-51 in the second round of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
Despite not shooting the ball well from behind the arc, the Tide’s defensive effort and rebounding prowess helped lead Alabama to victory.
Senior guard Jahvon Quinerly led the charge for the Crimson Tide with 22 points and freshman Brandon Miller poured in 19 on an off-shooting night.
Center Charles Bediako continues to prove how important he is to Alabama’s success with his physical presence in the paint as he clocked another double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Following the win, Alabama head coach Nate Oats would speak to the media about his team’s performance. Here is everything coach Oats had to say!
Opening statement
“I’d like to thank the city of Birmingham and everybody for putting this on. It’s been unbelievable to play in front of our hometown fans. The chance to go to the Sweet Sixteen. I thought that was great for our program, great for the state of Alabama, great for the city of Birmingham. So just thank whoever is responsible for bringing the tournament here and putting it on. It was good. Thought we had a pretty good crowd, pro-Alabama crowd tonight.
“The start of the game wasn’t what we wanted. I think they hit their first 4 field goals. We hung in there. Our defense picked up from there. They hit 2 out of their next 20 from that. And we outscored them 24-10 and able to keep the lead and hold them off. The second half, we were better. Obviously, a little concerned. Reese only played 4 minutes in the first half. And they were plus 6 in those 4 minutes. He played 16 minutes in the second half. But we did a good job. I thought Charles did a good job, Clowney did a good job. So you know our defense picked up, our offense struggled at times tonight, but I thought Quinerly, we needed him to make some shots.
“I mean these two guys were the guys that made threes. We usually shoot a little bit better. We only got 21 off. I thought Maryland did a really good job. You have to give Coach Willard a lot of credit. They did a good job with us. They weren’t trying to give many threes up. We got some of our guys loose in transition off O boards, loose ball plays. But you know we got to the offensive boards, you know, they did too. They had 10. We had 15. But second chance points were 16-4 us. Give our guys a lot of credit — I just told them, we may not make shots but we have constructed a team, we have a style of play that even when we don’t make shots our defense is good enough, and we get to the O boards, we just can’t turn it over.
“Second half we only had 3 turnovers. Getting to the O boards and eventually were able to make some shots. Break the game opener in the second half. Charles, I think it’s his fifth double-double of the year. That was big. Get him to make some free throws it would be even better. But I thought he was outstanding on the glass and on defense. It was a great game. Looking forward to playing San Diego State up in Louisville. We’ll be ready to go Friday.”
On Noah Gurley and early thoughts on San Diego State
“I didn’t even watch the San Diego State game today. I was busy still watching Maryland film. With the short turnaround, I just — I’m a big fan, but when we got a game to win, I try to lock in on the team we’re playing. So I know San Diego State’s defense is elite. That’s what I’ve been told by our staff. Furman is a really good team and they shook Furman out, so we’re going to have to spend a lot of time prepping for them. We’ll spend a lot of time tomorrow. The players will be off tomorrow, but the coaches will be in working.
“As far as Noah Gurley goes, I was really fired up on that offensive board put-back. I thought he made a great play, drove the ball in, kicked it out, got Brandon a great shot, didn’t go, stayed in there, got a put-back. I was really happy for him. And then the steal he forced was out of a timeout. Our two guys in the pick-and-roll didn’t do a great job. I thought Reese was coming free for a dunk or a lay-up and Noah kind of put his hand in there, got a deflection, knocked it off Reese’s leg and made a huge play for us.
“He played 10 minutes tonight. We were plus 3 when he was in. I think his last four games he was 6/9 from 3 going into that. Didn’t make any there, but that’s fine. He was 0/2 against A&M, 0/2 today. Probably means he’s set up for a couple good shooting, get back in the gym. When we’re back. He spends a lot of time in the gym, he will be primed for a good shooting game hopefully against San Diego State up in Louisville.”
On what Maryland did defensively to prevent Alabama from shooting a lot of 3's
“Defense is somewhat ours. They try to guard pick-and-roll with two guys, they drop the big, they don’t really help off. They weren’t helping off our shooters. We didn’t do a good enough job attacking their bigs in the pick-and-roll. I thought that backup center’s in without Reese in. We didn’t do a great job the first play out of the second half, we kind of tried to screen the big. Quinerly got downhill, got the layup. They made other adjustments. To be honest with you, I thought we got — and I have to go back and look at this. I thought we got a lot of our 3’s in the second half off offensive rebounds, some transition opportunities, kind of broken plays. Because they had a good play and they did a good job.
“We got to do a better job with our offensive plan against a team that’s going to do that. I told our guys, 1/7, that’s not how we play. We’d like to get 30 plus up a game. Only got 21 up tonight, but able to get on the offensive boards. And we got 23 shots at the rim, so did they. They were 12/23. We were 13/23. Kind of the difference was they ended up taking 21-9 at the rim 2’s and we only took 8. So, you know, we were able to take a lot more 3’s. We made 6; I think they only made 1. So, you know, it’s still a difference. We got little different styles. We were able to get off a few more. Quinerly was able to get off a few off the dribble in the second half. He’s going 4/6. He’s playing at a pretty high level right now.”
On what JQ's leadership means for Alabama's tournament run
“We have been there. Q has been there. We shot 12/25 from the free-throw line. We have to get back and work on some small details like free throws. Q has been there. Close. Went to overtime. You know, we’ve got more in us, I think. So San Diego State is a great team, we are going to have to prepare really well to play with them. We have to get some better production out of some of our other guys. I think the leadership that Quinerly, Gurley, and even some of our freshman has been giving us is great. Quinerly is the one that’s been there, was that close and missed. You know, so we’re going to get our guys focused and prepped and we’re going to do a good job these next five days leading into this game.”
On not dipping into the bench that much
“They were playing well. You know, I think getting into your bench is a lot more important in your first game when you play two games in three days. I kept asking them if they needed one. Quinerly needed one, come out, Charles needed one. We got Pringle in. If they needed a break, we would get them one. If I could tell they were a little tired, we would give them one. You also have longer timeouts in the NCAA Tournament. These timeouts seem like they go forever.
“So, you know, you get a little more rest time than their standard media timeouts. And we had some timeouts close, you know, rested guy. I think there was 8:44 mark. Rest them. For those, get the next media timeout. Kind of, they didn’t sit that much game time, but were able to sit a lot real time. I trust our bench. Just our starters were playing pretty well. And we, kind of, rolled with them. You know, first game I think Rylan led us in minutes with over 21. Today all the starters were, you know, at least 27 minutes. So we can go either way with it. Nimari played double-digit minutes. He was the only one off the bench. Trust the guys. I thought the starters were playing well. And we kind of rolled with them a little bit more tonight.”
On how he and JQ's relationship has evolved over the years
“Look, I love J.Q. He has a big heart. He’s trying to lead these guys. He’s grown up a lot since he got here. You know, it was ironic when we played at A&M, Jay Wright had our game. Me and Jay were talking, you know, Jahvon came over and gave Jay a hug. Jay said, “Man, he has grown up a lot as a leader since I had him.” He’s grown up a lot since we first had him. He’s made big strides. He understands what’s important. He speaks up when he needs to speak up. He’s taken ownership of this team. Like, it’s his team.
“It’s a lot of guy’s team, we got leadership from a lot of guys. He’s definitely one of them. And he finds a way to come around and play really well at the end of the year every year. He was SEC Tournament MVP two years ago. I thought he was playing his best basketball last year. Tore his ACL. I would like to think that game would have gone a different way if we had had him for the full 40 minutes in the tournament. He’s playing his best basketball by far right now. He doesn’t want to let his teammates down. He wants to take this team as far as we could go.”
On Brandon Miller's health, playing 34 minutes
“You know what, I didn’t know how many minutes he would be able to play. It seemed the longer he went the more loose it got, the better he was. I saw him kind of wince early. He didn’t have the same pop. You know, I’m looking at his stats. He ended up 3/11 from 2. And a lot of those are at the rim. I thought his finishing had been really good the whole conference play and everything. He definitely wasn’t 100%. He’s going to tell you he’s 100%.
“He’s a tough kid that’s going to play through some stuff. And not let people on how much he’s hurt. Him and Clarke spent a lot of time together over the last 48 hours. And give him a lot of credit. He was going to go. There was no question ever about whether he was going to go or not. We’ll rest him how we need to rest him until they feel like he’s ready to practice. If we don’t have him for a few practices, that’s fine. We have to get his groin as close to 100% as we can by Friday.”
On Charles Bediako's improvement on the offensive glass and his recent aggressiveness
“Yeah. It’s been huge. You look at our second chance points and it’s 16-4. It’s a big difference in the game. I think he’s been going. Some of these teams will switch us. Because we don’t post a ton. He’s been punishing the switch on the glass. Our switch attacks, a lot of times guards going at the big on the perimeter, part of that is we tell our guards you can’t get shot blocked. Or coming downhill and bigs rotating over. Don’t get your shot blocked at least get it up on the rim, because now our bigs got a guard on him, trying to block him out. We need to punish the switch or punish the smash down.
“Charles has been doing a great job of that. Look, he had 5 offensive rebounds. He had a third of the team’s offensive rebounds. He’s playing great for us. He’s a great kid. You guys have gotten to know him pretty well. He’s very soft-spoken. But the whole angry Chuck deal is very true. He has a side of him that comes out when we need it to come out. Part of his offensive rebounding is him playing aggressive and hard. Punishing the switches. He gets them on the guards. He gets them on the bigs too. He would have had another one if he didn’t have the over-the-back call. Worked on trying to get him to not go over the back and still rebound the ball pretty well.”
On what he is telling the team to stay focused with all that is going on around the team
“We talk about we’ve got big picture items and we got to be concerned with that. And then we have the details that matter when you get to practice, in the games, when I say matter, they matter to the game. Like you have to focus on what matters in practice. You have to focus on what matters in the game. And you are where your feet are. When we’re in practice, we’re focusing on that. When we’re in video, we’re focused on the preparation for the practice or game.
“When we’re in the game — and we kind of had that talk going into the SEC Tournament. I thought our guys did a great job focusing on the task at hand for three straight games of the SEC Tournament. I think they have done a really great job for two straight games here. First two rounds focusing on what they need to focus on when they are at practice, video, games, whatever it is. And then, you know, the appropriate big picture stuff will take — you know, our guys know they are dealing with on that other stuff.”
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