Nate Oats: Alabama Basketball Needs Players to Take Ownership on Defensive End

The Crimson Tide head coach still thinks his team is capable of making strides against premier scorers.

Jan 29, 2025; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats reacts against the Mississippi State Bulldogs during the first half at Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Wesley Hale-Imagn Images / Wesley Hale-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Star Georgia basketball freshman Asa Newell will present a different kind of challenge for No. 4 Alabama on Saturday, and Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats knows it. When it comes to the bigger picture, he wants to see his players step up more against an opponent's top scorers.

Newell leads the Bulldogs (15-6, 3-5 SEC) in scoring primarily as a paint presence. He's indispensable to Mike White's squad, which was recently ranked in the AP Top 25 for the first time since long before either coach in Saturday's contest arrived at their respective schools (as Oats pointed out).

"Going into Georgia, our post defense has to be elite, and we've had that exposed in different games as well this year," Oats said. "[Rutgers'] Dylan Harper's got 37 [points]. [Mississippi State's Josh] Hubbard just scored 38. [Treysen] Eaglestaff had 40 at North Dakota. I've kinda said, who's gonna step up and say 'Coach, I got this. He's done.'"

Oats mentioned guard Chris Youngblood, who has started each of Alabama's past two games and posted 23 points against Mississippi State on Wednesday, as an individual who has taken steps towards assuming the mantle of locking down another team's most prolific scoring option. However, he wants to see more of it from other players.

Newell's 15.2 points per game would rank second on the Crimson Tide (18-3, 7-1 SEC), behind point guard Mark Sears, who sits at an even 18. Sears had a quality performance in Starkville on the heels of his second-half benching against LSU last weekend and scored in double figures. Newell also leads his team in rebounds with seven per game. He put up a double-double (16 points, 10 rebounds) against top-ranked Auburn on Jan. 18.

"It'd be nice if some guys had some intensity and some pride about them to step up and be like, 'Coach, I got this guy. Just put me onto him. It's done. I got it,'" Oats said. "We've had some of that in the past... As we currently stand, we probably don't. So, we've gotta get a guy really amped up that's capable of guarding the other team's best players."

The Georgia forward is different from the other players Oats named, largely in that he is not a guard and much more often than not does not resort to the perimeter as his primary area in which to do damage. In any case, he is Georgia's most prescient box-score threat and the Crimson Tide's mission is clear: limit his impact and presence on the offensive end.

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