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The No. 2 seed Alabama Crimson Tide are headed to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year and the fourth time in five seasons after beating No. 7 Saint Mary's, 80-66, in the East Region of the NCAA Tournament on Sunday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
It's safe to say that Alabama (27-8) fans and players weren't sweating it out as much as in the Crimson Tide's 90-81 win over Robert Morris in the first round of the tournament on Friday. Alabama found themselves down by one point at 65-54 with under seven minutes to play against Robert Morris.
In the win over Saint Mary's, Alabama led by double digits for most of the second half. Their 80-66 lead as the final buzzer sounded in Cleveland tied for their biggest lead of the game.
The Crimson Tide had six players finish in double figures. Chris Youngblood had 13 points to lead the way, and Grant Nelson, Mark Sears and Aden Holloway all added 12. Mouhamed Dioubate and Clifford Omoruyi each had 10, with Dioubate also grabbing 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Nate Oats' team will face the No. 6 seed BYU Cougars in the Sweet 16 of the tournament Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:09 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on CBS.
After Sunday's win, Oats met with reporters and offered the following comments and responses to questions. Here's everything the Crimson Tide head coach to say.
"Yeah, that's a tough team. We knew they were tough. We got up on them 13 at the half. We knew they weren't going to go away. They came out in the second half, they were scoring on us a little too much. I thought our guys, though, after they made a little run there, I thought our guys answered.
"We played well on the offensive end for most of the game. We had too many turnovers. They had zero turnovers at the half. We were able to turn them over six times in the second half, which was big, helpful. We were up 10 on them on the glass at the half, and they're the second best offensive rebounding team in the country behind Texas A&M. We've happened to play both of them. Houston is obviously up there, too.
"I thought our guys did a really good job. Cliff had eight defensive rebounds. He had a double-double: 11 and 10. I thought our guards did a pretty good job finding him. We had six guys scoring double figures between 10 and 13. I really want -- Sears is not up here, but I thought his energy, his positivity when he was on the bench with the two fouls, how hard he played on defense, even with the foul trouble I thought was huge, but we had other guys step up and be able to score.
"I think it's tough to guard us when you've got six guys capable of getting double digits, and that's not even counting multiple guys that have scored it well for us that didn't get to double digits. So I thought we had great leadership tonight. Showed a lot of toughness. We said the tougher team is going to win this one, and that's one of the tougher teams in the country. Our guys really stepped up and met the challenge there tonight."
"Yeah, I thought we wore them out, particularly towards the end of the first half. Like you said, they kind of play a seven-man rotation. Hardaway played just under two minutes, and then that was it for their eighth guy. So seven guys played the bulk of the minutes. Saxen played over 39, Erik played almost 37, Marciulionis over 34, Ross over 34. So four of their starters were over 34 minutes.
"And if you look at us, we didn't have anybody over -- I mean, the most minutes -- Labaron led us in minutes with 28 and seven seconds, and nobody had over 28 minutes, really. And then we played, what, nine guys double-digit minutes? We got a lot of contributors.
"At the end of the first half, they finished the half 1 and 12 from the floor. I thought we kind of wore them out. Then they had to call time-out there in the second half with like nine minutes and change, if I remember right. It was probably a smart time-out. He's coached a lot of games, got to rest his guys, and he got a media time-out a minute later. I thought we were able to get into their lack of depth a little bit.
"And with the pace that they typically play, I don't think that ever really affects them, but we looked at possessions, I think the last time they had a 70 -- I think they've only had two 70-possession games all year, and one was against a non-Division I, and one was against Akron I think in the third game of the year in November. So we were about to get it to 70 possessions, not 80 like we like to get, but against a team like that, you're kind of winning the tempo war if you can get it to 70. The first team over 80 on them in over 100-plus games.
"So I think our depth, our tempo did get to them, but man they're tough, they're physical. They ended up with 15 O-boards, which is way too many. But their offensive rebounding rate was 36 percent. That's a lot higher than what we wanted, but we ended up winning the second-chance points.
"So I did tell our guys going in, just because you give up an O-board -- like in our practices, we give points for O-boards, but there's no points for an O-board in a game. There's only points if the ball goes through the rim. So we're going to give up some O-boards. We're not going to pitch a shutout. They're that good. Once we give up an O-board, we've got get a stop.
"Chris Youngblood got in there. He got that steal late. I told our guards we've got to have all of you in the mix. We need you getting rebounds. If they get it, we need to have you stripping their bigs after they get it. Labaron ends up with three steals, six defensive rebounds. Can't say enough about our guards making tough plays, I thought, helping rebound. I thought we did a good job with some of that stuff."
"Yeah, for sure. We're definitely deeper with more guys available. I thought Derrion Reid was great on Friday. It didn't work out to play him as many minutes this game, but we have guys 10. I'm comfortable playing double-digit minutes. Grant Nelson was hurt. We got away without playing him hardly at all. Derrion was part of that, being able to not play Grant until about seven minutes to go in that game.
"Whether it's injuries, foul trouble, just depth to wear teams out, guys just not playing well and you need somebody else to step up, I definitely think we've got it. Mo Dioubate stepped up big in last year's run. Even today, tThey went two bigs a lot. Two seven-footers out there. So he didn't play as many minutes maybe as we normally would have liked him to do because we played Aiden Sherrell, Cliff and Grant a lot of minutes. And Aiden and Cliff don't really play together much.
"Tonight we did a lot more, so Mo's minutes weren't what we like to get him. I'm sure they'll go up moving forward. But shoot, you look at what he did in 15 minutes, he had 10 and 5 in 15 minutes. So we've got guys that have efficient games, too, like Derrion Reid scored nine points in, what, 10 minutes or so on Friday, whatever it was. I think guys are able to have efficient minutes and play efficient in their minutes, which I think is big, as well.
"I hope something's clicking with him because when he's playing really well like he was tonight, we're a different team. I thought he was great. Trevor Morse, he's got 11 double-doubles on the year. I think he's more than capable of having a double-double every game out. He played 25 minutes and had 10 and 11 with two blocks. Shoot, he even had two assists tonight.
"I thought he was really good and did a good job kind of challenging their -- their bigs are good. They're big. They punch in the post a lot. You kind of look at what they did. Saxen had a good game. He had 15 an 5. He shot 7 of 12 from the floor. Wessels was only 3 of 9 from the floor. I thought Grant, Aiden Sherrell, Cliff kind of affected those two guys a little bit, but they're good, they're big. They're tough.
"They're definitely way more stylistically like us, like you said. I've actually gotten to know Kevin (Young) pretty well. I've gone to the Suns' training camp a couple times when Monty (Williams) was the coach and he was the assistant there. And he's great. I've kind of been interested to follow him as he got into college. He's done a really good job there. I've watched him a little bit here and there.
"But I haven't dove in totally. I don't know that I want to say it's refreshing to go against somebody that plays like us because I think we're really tough to guard, and we've led the country in scoring the last two years. I don't think anybody's saying it's refreshing to play Alabama, whoever is running the defense for the other team. I mean, in a way, maybe it's not such a smash-mouth game, like, you're not playing football out there like some of these teams. But they're not easy to cover. I mean, he's running great sets. They've got shooters all over the place. They're good.
"So we're going to have to really lock in, and coaches are going to have to really do a good job getting our guys ready and then our guys are going to have to execute whatever the plan is we decide to put in and we're going to have to make adjustments to it because I'm sure he'll make adjustments. So yeah, I'm looking forward to playing in the Sweet 16. It's great. It's the first time in school history that we've been to three straight Sweet 16s. But I would not use the word 'refreshing' to play against an offense like BYU has. That's probably not the correct word."
"I think Mark's 6-1 now in Cleveland, right? And I'm 11-1? I've been here a few more times than Mark so I've had more opportunities than he had. I thought Mark played great. He doesn't get in foul trouble much, so it was a little tough with him getting in foul trouble. That's why his minutes were down: 26 minutes. He's usually over 30.
"But I thought he kept his attitude great. We pulled him in, took him out, played him. I think he's been looking for Cliff. He's finding him. He really just cares about winning. A lot of the guys that can score at the level he can score it at get frustrated when they're not scoring. Mark's been moving the ball, just being a really good team here in Cleveland. Whether it's being in Cleveland or what, he's made three straight Sweet 16's as a player, so whether they sent us to Spokane or Birmingham, it's now 6-0 in the first week in the NCAA Tournament.
"Cleveland has been good to him. So has Birmingham, so has Spokane. Let's hope we can head to Newark and play as well as we did in L.A. last year because that was good for us, as well. Regardless of where they send us, we've got to play two really tough teams coming up, and we've got to be ready for them. I thought Sears has been great here this weekend. We need him to be great again next weekend."
This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama basketball quotes after NCAA Tournament win over Saint Mary's
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It's safe to say that Alabama (27-8) fans and players weren't sweating it out as much as in the Crimson Tide's 90-81 win over Robert Morris in the first round of the tournament on Friday. Alabama found themselves down by one point at 65-54 with under seven minutes to play against Robert Morris.
In the win over Saint Mary's, Alabama led by double digits for most of the second half. Their 80-66 lead as the final buzzer sounded in Cleveland tied for their biggest lead of the game.
The Crimson Tide had six players finish in double figures. Chris Youngblood had 13 points to lead the way, and Grant Nelson, Mark Sears and Aden Holloway all added 12. Mouhamed Dioubate and Clifford Omoruyi each had 10, with Dioubate also grabbing 10 rebounds for his second double-double of the season.
Nate Oats' team will face the No. 6 seed BYU Cougars in the Sweet 16 of the tournament Thursday. Tipoff is scheduled for 6:09 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on CBS.
After Sunday's win, Oats met with reporters and offered the following comments and responses to questions. Here's everything the Crimson Tide head coach to say.
Nate Oats opening statement after Alabama's win over Saint Mary's
"Yeah, that's a tough team. We knew they were tough. We got up on them 13 at the half. We knew they weren't going to go away. They came out in the second half, they were scoring on us a little too much. I thought our guys, though, after they made a little run there, I thought our guys answered.
"We played well on the offensive end for most of the game. We had too many turnovers. They had zero turnovers at the half. We were able to turn them over six times in the second half, which was big, helpful. We were up 10 on them on the glass at the half, and they're the second best offensive rebounding team in the country behind Texas A&M. We've happened to play both of them. Houston is obviously up there, too.
"I thought our guys did a really good job. Cliff had eight defensive rebounds. He had a double-double: 11 and 10. I thought our guards did a pretty good job finding him. We had six guys scoring double figures between 10 and 13. I really want -- Sears is not up here, but I thought his energy, his positivity when he was on the bench with the two fouls, how hard he played on defense, even with the foul trouble I thought was huge, but we had other guys step up and be able to score.
"I think it's tough to guard us when you've got six guys capable of getting double digits, and that's not even counting multiple guys that have scored it well for us that didn't get to double digits. So I thought we had great leadership tonight. Showed a lot of toughness. We said the tougher team is going to win this one, and that's one of the tougher teams in the country. Our guys really stepped up and met the challenge there tonight."
Oats on the importance of Alabama's depth vs. Saint Mary's
"Yeah, I thought we wore them out, particularly towards the end of the first half. Like you said, they kind of play a seven-man rotation. Hardaway played just under two minutes, and then that was it for their eighth guy. So seven guys played the bulk of the minutes. Saxen played over 39, Erik played almost 37, Marciulionis over 34, Ross over 34. So four of their starters were over 34 minutes.
"And if you look at us, we didn't have anybody over -- I mean, the most minutes -- Labaron led us in minutes with 28 and seven seconds, and nobody had over 28 minutes, really. And then we played, what, nine guys double-digit minutes? We got a lot of contributors.
"At the end of the first half, they finished the half 1 and 12 from the floor. I thought we kind of wore them out. Then they had to call time-out there in the second half with like nine minutes and change, if I remember right. It was probably a smart time-out. He's coached a lot of games, got to rest his guys, and he got a media time-out a minute later. I thought we were able to get into their lack of depth a little bit.
"And with the pace that they typically play, I don't think that ever really affects them, but we looked at possessions, I think the last time they had a 70 -- I think they've only had two 70-possession games all year, and one was against a non-Division I, and one was against Akron I think in the third game of the year in November. So we were about to get it to 70 possessions, not 80 like we like to get, but against a team like that, you're kind of winning the tempo war if you can get it to 70. The first team over 80 on them in over 100-plus games.
"So I think our depth, our tempo did get to them, but man they're tough, they're physical. They ended up with 15 O-boards, which is way too many. But their offensive rebounding rate was 36 percent. That's a lot higher than what we wanted, but we ended up winning the second-chance points.
"So I did tell our guys going in, just because you give up an O-board -- like in our practices, we give points for O-boards, but there's no points for an O-board in a game. There's only points if the ball goes through the rim. So we're going to give up some O-boards. We're not going to pitch a shutout. They're that good. Once we give up an O-board, we've got get a stop.
"Chris Youngblood got in there. He got that steal late. I told our guards we've got to have all of you in the mix. We need you getting rebounds. If they get it, we need to have you stripping their bigs after they get it. Labaron ends up with three steals, six defensive rebounds. Can't say enough about our guards making tough plays, I thought, helping rebound. I thought we did a good job with some of that stuff."
Oats on whether he believes this year's Alabama team is better equipped at getting to the Final Four than last year's based on personnel and depth
"Yeah, for sure. We're definitely deeper with more guys available. I thought Derrion Reid was great on Friday. It didn't work out to play him as many minutes this game, but we have guys 10. I'm comfortable playing double-digit minutes. Grant Nelson was hurt. We got away without playing him hardly at all. Derrion was part of that, being able to not play Grant until about seven minutes to go in that game.
"Whether it's injuries, foul trouble, just depth to wear teams out, guys just not playing well and you need somebody else to step up, I definitely think we've got it. Mo Dioubate stepped up big in last year's run. Even today, tThey went two bigs a lot. Two seven-footers out there. So he didn't play as many minutes maybe as we normally would have liked him to do because we played Aiden Sherrell, Cliff and Grant a lot of minutes. And Aiden and Cliff don't really play together much.
"Tonight we did a lot more, so Mo's minutes weren't what we like to get him. I'm sure they'll go up moving forward. But shoot, you look at what he did in 15 minutes, he had 10 and 5 in 15 minutes. So we've got guys that have efficient games, too, like Derrion Reid scored nine points in, what, 10 minutes or so on Friday, whatever it was. I think guys are able to have efficient minutes and play efficient in their minutes, which I think is big, as well.
Oats on Clifford Omoruyi stepping up and whether something in clicking with him
"I hope something's clicking with him because when he's playing really well like he was tonight, we're a different team. I thought he was great. Trevor Morse, he's got 11 double-doubles on the year. I think he's more than capable of having a double-double every game out. He played 25 minutes and had 10 and 11 with two blocks. Shoot, he even had two assists tonight.
"I thought he was really good and did a good job kind of challenging their -- their bigs are good. They're big. They punch in the post a lot. You kind of look at what they did. Saxen had a good game. He had 15 an 5. He shot 7 of 12 from the floor. Wessels was only 3 of 9 from the floor. I thought Grant, Aiden Sherrell, Cliff kind of affected those two guys a little bit, but they're good, they're big. They're tough.
Oats on whether BYU matching up more stylistically with Alabama than Saint Mary's or Robert Morris:
"They're definitely way more stylistically like us, like you said. I've actually gotten to know Kevin (Young) pretty well. I've gone to the Suns' training camp a couple times when Monty (Williams) was the coach and he was the assistant there. And he's great. I've kind of been interested to follow him as he got into college. He's done a really good job there. I've watched him a little bit here and there.
"But I haven't dove in totally. I don't know that I want to say it's refreshing to go against somebody that plays like us because I think we're really tough to guard, and we've led the country in scoring the last two years. I don't think anybody's saying it's refreshing to play Alabama, whoever is running the defense for the other team. I mean, in a way, maybe it's not such a smash-mouth game, like, you're not playing football out there like some of these teams. But they're not easy to cover. I mean, he's running great sets. They've got shooters all over the place. They're good.
"So we're going to have to really lock in, and coaches are going to have to really do a good job getting our guys ready and then our guys are going to have to execute whatever the plan is we decide to put in and we're going to have to make adjustments to it because I'm sure he'll make adjustments. So yeah, I'm looking forward to playing in the Sweet 16. It's great. It's the first time in school history that we've been to three straight Sweet 16s. But I would not use the word 'refreshing' to play against an offense like BYU has. That's probably not the correct word."
Oats on the connection between Mark Sears and Clifford Omoruyi, as well as Oats and Sears' success in Cleveland
"I think Mark's 6-1 now in Cleveland, right? And I'm 11-1? I've been here a few more times than Mark so I've had more opportunities than he had. I thought Mark played great. He doesn't get in foul trouble much, so it was a little tough with him getting in foul trouble. That's why his minutes were down: 26 minutes. He's usually over 30.
"But I thought he kept his attitude great. We pulled him in, took him out, played him. I think he's been looking for Cliff. He's finding him. He really just cares about winning. A lot of the guys that can score at the level he can score it at get frustrated when they're not scoring. Mark's been moving the ball, just being a really good team here in Cleveland. Whether it's being in Cleveland or what, he's made three straight Sweet 16's as a player, so whether they sent us to Spokane or Birmingham, it's now 6-0 in the first week in the NCAA Tournament.
"Cleveland has been good to him. So has Birmingham, so has Spokane. Let's hope we can head to Newark and play as well as we did in L.A. last year because that was good for us, as well. Regardless of where they send us, we've got to play two really tough teams coming up, and we've got to be ready for them. I thought Sears has been great here this weekend. We need him to be great again next weekend."
This article originally appeared on Roll Tide Wire: Alabama basketball quotes after NCAA Tournament win over Saint Mary's
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