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Mar 27, 2025; Newark, NJ, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reacts during the first half against the Brigham Young Cougars during an East Regional semifinal of the 2025 NCAA tournament at Prudential Center. | Photo: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters after the Crimson Tide’s 113-88 win over No. 6 seed BYU. the Tide advanced to the Elite Eight for the third time in school history and the second season in a row. It will compete for a spot in the Final Four on Sunday.
Here’s everything Oats said.
Opening statement
"That was a fun game if you like offense. That was fun for the fans, I'm sure, at least for the Alabama fans.
"Listen, I've got to teach these guys some math. I told Sears there's a thing called regression to the mean. His last six games he was shooting 14 percent, 5 of 35. He's not a 14 percent shooter, obviously. They had been going under ball screens just about every game we watched. I told both those guys, Holloway and Sears, man, I hope they go under us because we're going to rein them.
"So we were in the gym last night, the night before. These guys show up for voluntary shooting every time it's available to make sure that they're ready to go, and that work pays off. We want to base our program on hard work.
"I told Mark he's playing chess, not checkers, he just kind of set everybody up with that 5 of 35 thinking he was in a slump and he's going to come out and shoot — 63 percent ain't bad. 10 3s, I think the first guy in NCAA tournament history that had at least eight 3s and seven assists. Not only was he scoring it, he was moving it. Helps to get assists when you've got guys like CY and Aden Holloway making shots like they did, too, so between these three guys we had 21 3s. We've had 22 before a couple times, I think. I think maybe 23. We've never hit 25.
"BYU with their personnel, we knew that once they started going under — they always collapse. They kind of have to. They got away with it against some teams that don't space like we do. But I told these guys going in, if you move the ball — we end up with 27 assists. I'm not sure that ranks in tournament history. But if you'll move the ball, our offense is designed to beat a defense like this.
"They're heavy in the gaps, they over-help, and we did.
"Now, they're a really good offensive team, too. Everybody questions whether we had the defense to win. For some reason nobody was talking about our offense, though. We've gotten to know Mike D'Antoni a little bit. He made the point, your offense only has to be one point in the efficiency better than your defense to win the game.
"Now, we were trying to get stops, and I thought we did a pretty good job. They went on a run. Sears got a steal when they started to make a run there in the second half. It was a big play. We got a bunch of O-boards. Our second-chance points, I thought we had some 3s off that. We gave them too many second-chance, but we did hit some 3s of it.
"It was good. We were able to rest some — our top-minute guy was Sears with just over 30 and then nobody else – CY and Grant, 27 and 25. Whoever we play, we were able to get these guys a little bit more rest than normal.
"So proud of our guys. We're in the Elite 8 for the third time in school history and back to back. Sears has been in the middle of it. These two guys came to play with him, and they're a unbelievable backcourt together. I thought Labaron did a good job moving the ball tonight, too. He went 2 of 3 himself. He ended up with six assists. I thought everybody played well in their roles tonight."
On Alabama’s 3-point defense
"Try to play analytically sound on both sides of the ball. Free throws, number one; at the rim is number two. Obviously uncontested at the rims as much as possible, and then kick-out 3s.
"And then on the other side of the ball, we're trying to not put them to the free-throw line. So we didn't do a great job of that in my opinion. They had 20 free throws, we were fouling too much, particularly in the second half. We tried to take away the three, they ended up getting 30 off, which is too many. We were trying not to let them get that off, but I did think we contested enough. They didn't shoot it great, were 6 of 30 and obviously we're not trying to give up shots at the rim.
"Our defense is designed not to give up 3s. Sometimes we do a good job of it, sometimes we don't. But we try to guard all the pick-and-rolls with just two guys. We saw some other teams always pulling a third guy in. And Demin is so good, a 6'8" point guard catching that. We were trying not to give those up, didn't want to give up any transition 3s. And then obviously not trying to give up — penetrate, over-help, kick. I remember we gave up one of those in the second half, and we gave up a transition one back to back. Wasn't real happy with that.
But we don't want to give up 3s. Our defense did a fairly decent job of it at times, but not to the level we need to. We try to play analytically sound basketball on both sides of the ball."
On breaking Loyola Marymount’s 1990 record for made 3s in an NCAA Tournament and what that means to Oats
"I loved watching them play. That was my freshman year in high school that year. I remember Bo Kimble shooting left-hand free throws in honor of Hank. I loved watching them play. They got up-and-down. Maybe part of the reason we coach the way we coach. It's a little more fun that way.
"I didn't know that they had the record in the tournament. I guess it's nice to beat their record. It's interesting. Michigan won it in '89, right. So before I got into Division I, I was the head coach at Romulus back in Detroit. And Terry Mills from Romulus, he played on that Michigan team in '89, I believe, when they went and won it, I believe. Because I won that state championship in '86. We got the only two state championships with Romulus. Al Wilkerson coached Terry, and then I coached pretty good kids in 2013. It's an interesting history, but I loved that Loyola Marymount team.
"I do believe that the record for 3s made in a game is held by Troy right out of Alabama with 28. We wanted to get to 28 tonight, but 25 is not bad."
On Alabama coming so far in such a short time and what it means to be playing to go back to the Final Four for a second straight season
"Yeah, I mean, obviously when I got the job, we didn't have the transfer portal, eligibility immediately, NIL, so it was a little harder to turn it around immediately like you can now. So we had Quinerly, who by the way, we're in his back yard, which is great. He showed up to practice and has been hanging out with our guys.
"But he couldn't play. He had to sit that year. That was like the last guy the NCAA wouldn't let play. You can't flip your roster like you can now.
"We got saved by COVID that year, so we can say that we made the NCAA Tournament every time since I've been to Alabama because I don't think we were making it that year.
"I've been fortunate to have some really good recruiters on staff to get us some very good players. We were fortunate to walk into some good players, John Petty, all time leading three-point shooter was already there, Avery left us some pretty good talent, Herb Jones who's been a pretty good NBA player. Those guys — Alex Reese was here. Alex hit the big three in our second year to accepted it to overtime in the Sweet 16.
"We kind of turned it in year 2, made that Sweet 16 run. And then the recruiting, Brian Hodgson, Antoine Pettway. Now I got Preston Murphy. I've had some of the best recruiters in the country get some really good talent to play the way we want to play. I love playing this way. I think players want to play this way.
"It was fun. BYU plays an NBA system. We had some better talent than them tonight, but it's a lot more fun way to play basketball, if you will.
"When you play this way and you show everybody — even our first year, we played this way. We just didn't have as much talent to do it. And now we've been able to get the talent and hopefully we get to continue to get the talent, we keep the resources where we need to and keep making these runs. I think the Alabama fans like us making deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. At least I do."
On what it will take preparation-wise to have a repeat performance and get a win in the Elite Eight
"Yeah, we've had plenty of games where we haven't shot it well. I think we've been really focused on making sure we don't overdo practice, legs are fresh, minds are fresh while still getting the scouting report in.
"They're supposed to be off their legs as soon as the media gets out of the locker room. Let's get them back to the hotel, let's get them off their legs, let's get the recovery started. Tomorrow it'll just be walk-through, and then we've got to be ready to go.
"Now, we've got to keep moving the ball. Obviously whether it's Duke or Arizona, their defense is going to be a little different. They've got some probably better rim protection, try to build out on us. We've got to do a good job on the offensive side of the ball, showing them how they can get the threes.
"But people ask me how many threes would you like to get off every game. Well, kind of depends on how they guard us. If they guard us like we knew BYU was going to and stay heaving in the gaps, we'll take 50, 51. If they're going to build out — we've had games where we've scored 60 plus — multiple games we've got 50, 60 plus points in the paint, too.
"You know, if Duke or Arizona, whoever ends up winning decides they're not going to give us some threes, that's fine, too. Let's get to the rim. Now, the rim protection is going to be a little different. We're going to have to figure out how to deal with that a little bit. Because obviously — I don't want to pronounce it wrong, Khaman has a 9'8" reach. So rim protection a little different. We're going to have to do a really good job on the offensive side of the ball.
"The other thing is our defense is going to have to be really good because they both have very good offenses.
"I don't know that we're going to repeat 51 threes attempted, but we're going to have the guys ready to play the right way in my opinion and fresh. And if we get stops, it's a lot easier to get out in transition. You can get some 3s in transition, too."
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