Everything Alabama Basketball Coach Nate Oats Said After Narrow Arkansas Win

The No. 3 Alabama men’s basketball team moved into a tie for first-place in the Southeastern Conference following its 85-81 win at Arkansas.

Feb 8, 2025; Fayetteville, Arkansas, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats during the first half against the Arkansas Razorbacks at Bud Walton Arena. / Nelson Chenault-Imagn Images

It was more than a trap game, and probably a must win if the University of Alabama men's basketball team wanted to keep its Southeastern Conference regular-season title hopes alive. With the Crimson Tide getting ready to close out its league schedule with seven straight games against ranked opponents, beginning next Saturday against rival Auburn after visiting Texas on Tuesday, it couldn't afford to stumble at Arkansas.

It almost did. Although No. 3 Alabama (20-3, 9-1 SEC) led by as many as 18 points in the second half, it endured a late run by the home team the Crimson Tide held on 85-81. That was despite making a season-low five 3-pointers, while outscoring the Razorbacks by 20 points in the paint.

Here's what head coach Nate Oats had to say after the final buzzer if this atypical league game:

“A big road win. This team has been playing well. They’ve won three of four. The issue was we were up 18, and then we didn’t close it like we need to. So a lot of credit to Arkansas for not quitting. They fought. They stayed in it. Took an 18-point lead with 12 to go or so and cut that thing to three there late. I thought our guys did a decent job of closing once they cut it the three, we were able to get that put-back and made a couple free throws. But we gotta do a better job closing. We risked losing a road game that we were supposed to by not closing that thing like we were supposed to. So a lot of credit to them.

“We didn’t do a very good job on Big Z [Zvonimir Ivišić]. He killed us tonight. I thought we had a decent game plan for him but didn’t execute it great at times, and he made some tough shots. He’s a super-skilled player. [Adou] Thiero was very aggressive, very tough. I thought he kind of bullied some of our guys, and we just didn’t match his physicality from some guys, which we got to do a better job of, but I thought our scoring depth was a little better than theirs. We have a lot more options.

“On [Mark] Sears, this wasn’t one of his’ better offensive games as far as scoring goes, but I thought his effort was great. He won the Hard Hat deal. I thought he was playing really hard. The steal he had there at halfcourt, got the layup. If we can get him to keep playing as hard on defense and get his turnovers cut down ... I mean, some of these teams are really into him on our offensive end. We got to figure out a way to get him a little more freed up.

“But we got a big game Tuesday. If we take care of business Tuesday, we have a big one Saturday. But a good road win. Proud of our guys. Just got to close it better.”

SEE ALSO: No. 3 Alabama Survives at Arkansas, Moves into First Place in SEC

On Arkansas’ comeback ...

“I gotta go watch the film to give a better answer on that because, at the beginning half, I thought our intensity was good. I thought we were forcing them to take some tough shots. They took 19 mid-range twos, and we didn’t take any. So you look at like the field-goal percentage, for a while there we were up like 60. We ended up at 55, and they were 43. So I thought we did a good job forcing them to take the type of shots we wanted them to take. And they didn’t shoot bad. they shot 37 percent on those mid-range twos, which is about what most teams would shoot.

“So I thought to build the lead, we forced them to take the shots we want them to take. We got the shots we wanted to and didn’t turn it over. That was the issue in the first half. We had so many turnovers. So to build the lead, we didn’t really turn it over much in the second half. Got the right shots. Then we had some turnovers there after we had built an 18-point lead. We missed a couple shots we should have made. We got to make free throws. We had some turnovers there when they were on their run and we didn’t do a very good job guarding some of their actions.

“They just got downhill. We didn’t have the help where it was supposed to be. We missed some switches we were supposed to have. I thought they were starting to run out of energy, and it looked to me like maybe we ran out of some energy, and maybe I gotta have some other guys in there. Some guys were tired. I don’t know. But I’m gonna have to look at that film on that last kind of 10 minutes of the game and see what happened.”

Should Alabama be No. 1 in the rankings following losses by Auburn and Duke?

“I don’t really care to be honest with you. I’m probably not going to make a pitch. I did see Auburn lost before we played, just because I try to watch SEC games when we’ve got a late game. Florida came in ready to play. So now we’re tied and we just gotta take care of business. We’ve got full control of our own destiny to win the SEC right now. Wherever the voters want to put us, it doesn’t matter. We’ll be one, two or three, that’s for sure, and I don’t really care. Let’s focus on Texas. Let’s try to win an SEC regular-season championship and let all that other stuff fall where it may.”

On what Alabama can learn from the second half:

“We’ve got to realize ... we've shown these guys all kinds of end-of-game situations from different teams throughout the country this year. We gotta realize an 18-point lead, we’re not playing just to win the game. We almost lost the game after being up 18. We’re not playing to win the game. We’re playing to get better on every possession, and when you start playing the scoreboard and you don’t play to get better on every possession that’s the stuff that happens to you.

“So I’m a little irritated because we played really well for 30 minutes. We got the turnovers fixed to start the second half, and then, again, I got to go back and look, but I feel like our guys just relaxed. We thought we were up 20. They waved Labaron’s missed layup off because the goaltend was — I haven’t seen the clip on that. They said it wasn’t a goaltend. So it looked like 20; actually 18. We come out. And the one time out, we came out of, they scored about three or four. I had to call the one timeout. They scored three straight possessions. Another timeout, they came out, they scored 5 or 6, I believe. We’re not tuned in enough on the defensive end like we need to be in, and it’s a little frustrating to me, to be honest with you.”

On Alabama scoring 56 points in the paint

“I didn’t realize that. Yeah, it’s 56-36 in the paint. I mean ... we only had five threes. We had to score from somewhere. Shoot, not one of our better 3-point shooting games. They did a pretty good job defensively running us off the line, being super physical, not letting our shooters come off some screens. So we weren’t able to get — CY [Chris Youngblood], [Aden] Holloway and Sears were the only guys that made a three, and they didn’t shoot it particularly well. But we got to do a better job generating threes for guys., but when our threes aren't dropping it's good to know that we can score in the paint.

"I thought [Mouhamed] Dioubate gave us a huge lift. You look, he plays 15 minutes, has 14 points, doesn’t take a three, he’s 7-of-9 from from the floor. They’re all right there at the rim. His physicality caused them some problems. You look at Cliff [Omoruyi] kind of came alive there on some plays there in the second half. We got to find him a little bit more. Grant [Nelson] scores 15. Five at the free-throw line. The other 10 are all off the rim.

“So, yeah, we didn’t take a non-rim two all night. We’re 0-for-0. They were 7-of19. So we’re getting to the paint, collecting fouls. Wish we would have collected a few more. But we’re aggressively driving it to the rim. We’re getting right at the front of the rim. And when they’re not giving up threes and the lane’s open, we’ll get downhill and go to a rim.”

On what makes Arkansas tough to put away:

“They’ve got a bunch of hard-playing guys, and they’ve got some pride. They didn’t have a very good start. Obviously, Boogie [Fland] is a really good player. We recruited him. But I think when he went out it helped define some roles, maybe sometimes despite how good a player he personally is, I think it maybe helped define some roles for some other guys. They were able to kind of get the rotation a little tighter. I think that they’re playing hard for each other now. I think they’re tough, they’re physical. I mean, Thiero’s one of the most athletic, tough players in the league. I mean, 22 and shot 8-of-14. That one three he hit in front of our bench in the first half was big.

“And they get stops. They’re tough, physical. I mean, [John] Calipari’s teams always play hard on defense, and this is a hard-playing group. And they did an unbelievable job hanging in the game after getting down 18.”

On how Holloway's improved shooting:

“I don’t know. I mean, I wish we could get him a lot more than four because you’re right, he’s making about half of them. He shot 19 that one game. It’d be nice if we could get him about 19 again. They weren’t trying to leave any of us open from three. We only got 19 up. That’s not how we want to play. But they did a good job running us off the line. We got to find him more. I like the one that he missed that Labaron flipped back to him in transition. That’s one that he typically hits.

“The other one he missed would have sealed the game pretty late there, but I thought they were both great shots. I want him to shoot it every time. Any of those that he gets open, we want him to shoot, and we’re just trying to pump him full confidence and tell him he cannot pass up any open looks period, at any point, and we gotta try to find him some more shots. So that’s good to see him making shots, though. We need somebody to make some shots. We weren’t making them very well today.”

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