Nate Oats spoke with media on Saturday night after Alabama’s season-ending loss to Duke in the Elite Eight.
After scoring 113 points against BYU in the Sweet 16, The Crimson Tide struggled offensively against the Blue Devils. Alabama lost 85-65, shooting just 8-of-32 from beyond the arc.
Following the game, Oats noted the disappointing outcome coming so soon after one of Alabama’s greatest games of the season against BYU.
“We obviously played two nights ago and it’s tough within 48 hours from playing as well as we did to playing as poorly as we did,” Oats remarked. “That is how the NCAA Tournament operates in a one-game elimination tournament. You play poorly, and you are sent home, which is exactly what happened.
Alabama‘s offense hinges on creating shots from 3-point range and at the rim, but Duke was able to shut down both of those options on Saturday night. Freshman center Khaman Maluach had a significant impact on the interior, limiting Alabama’s success at the rim.
“You look at their starting lineup, they’ve got Khaman Maluach that has a 9’8 reach, he protects the rim at a high level,” Oats went on. “But when they have a rim protector, it’s difficult to get rim shots. We shot 48 percent at the rim tonight, with only 12 attempts. We were 12 out of 25. You know, he made it tough.”
Aside from bad rim finishing and poor 3-point shooting, Oats was also dissatisfied with several other aspects of the game.
“We still got some decent looks from three and we just didn’t hit them,” according to Oats. “They shot 6 of 13, while we shot 8 of 32, or 25% from three. Is this good enough to beat Duke? Yes, if you accomplish everything else at an outstanding level, which we did not do. We didn’t finish the painting and didn’t get to the O-boards well enough. We had too many turnovers. We committed three turnovers before the first media timeout, which put us in a big disadvantage right away.
Oats and his Alabama coaching team will now begin the process of rebuilding this roster for next season. Alabama has advanced to at least the Sweet 16 in three consecutive years.
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