'Super Intense' Brian Adams Changing Alabama Basketball's Mindset

The Crimson Tide head coach took his time before selecting Adams to lead the defensive end.

Nate Oats / Alabama athletic

BIRMINGHAM Ala. -- The No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide enters the 2024 basketball season with the highest preseason ranking in program history. The Crimson Tide is coming off the program's first Final Four appearance and is looking to raise the bar even higher by claiming the program's first national championship.

Alabama had a historically good offense in 2023-24 but defensive deficiencies hindered the team from finding regular season consistency and the Crimson Tide ultimately finished tied for second in the SEC earning the No. 3 seed in the conference tournament due to tie-breakers. The putrid defense saw the Crimson Tide lose its only game in Nashville and perpetuated doubts in Alabama's ability to make a deep tournament run.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats knew the defense needed to be addressed in the offseason, despite the historic NCAA Tournament run .

"I think the biggest area we tried to address this offseason was defensive rim protection," Oats said at SEC Media Days. "Bringing in Cliff [Omoruyi] and Aiden Sherrell, both, is going to be big but we also brought in some long, athletic defenders. We had the number one scoring team in the country last year our offense wasn't our problem our defense was our issue. Everybody we brought in needed to be able to impact the game on the defensive end.

"So you look at the transfers we brought in. Cliff may be the best shotblocker in the country. Chris Youngblood, ultimate competitor. Houston Mallette, long, athletic, defensive guy. The freshman Derrion Reid is super versatile, Aiden Sherrell, rim protector. Labaron Philon's been maybe our best two-way guard every day in practice. That's what we were looking to do, that's what we were looking to address in our recruiting needs this offseason. I think we did a good job of it."

Alabama fans celebrated Omouryi's decision to transfer to Tuscaloosa as his rim protection was something the Crimson Tide struggled with all of last year, but perhaps the most important defensive addition came much later in the offseason.

Oats and the program settled on Brian Adams to fill his vacated third assistant role at the beginning of July but the athletic department didn't officially announce him until the middle of the month, a few weeks after the players had already begun summer workouts.

"We interviewed a handful of guys. I was very meticulous, methodical," Oats said. I didn't rush to make the hire when Austin [Claunch] got the job with Texas San Antonio. I'd kind of left the roster spot open. Our biggest need was defense. Charlie Henry had done a great job running our defense for four years. He had us top three in the country two of those four years and we weren't even close to that last year. That falls on me as a coach, so I needed to get somebody in here to help do it.

"So everybody we interviewed, I just basically told them, 'If you can't coach a top five defense in the country, don't bother applying or talking to me'. So we kind of narrowed it down, went through some Zooms with my staff with a few guys. I thought Bryan's run on defense, he's done it in the NBA, he's been a G-League head coach, he's coached in college before, he's had two different colleges so he had some college experience. He works extremely hard, he's a big video guy. He's doing a great job with it. Our defense is going to be marketably improved from last year, due in part to him, due in part to the roster. The roster is more important than the coaches but we do have to have a coach that knows what he's doing and I think he's doing a great job."

The Crimson Tide allowed 81.2 points per game last season with one of the worst defenses in the nation. A face-paced offense allowed the program to be successful but it's an area the whole team knows needs to get better and Adams is helping the group get there.

"Oh this year, we've got a new defensive coach," Alabama guard Mark Sears said. "He's made it a statement 'we're going to be one of the best defensive teams in the country'. Every day in practice it's been a staple that we're going to show the effort to be that."

Adams, according to the players in Birmingham, has already shifted the culture from one that values offensive output to one that values defensive stops. Oats is famous for his competitive practices that track each players production and Adams has apparently been able to incorporate those competitions on the defensive end to help the team embrace that end of the floor.

"He's super intense. That's one thing that he's changed with us," Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell said. "Normally we're looked at as like just fast paced offense or whatever. It's hard to guard our offense the way we play, just guarding our offense every day and the way he's coaching it. He doesn't look at it as an offensive school. He is trying to look at it as a defensive school and just switch our mindset of 'it's not about scoring, it's about getting stops and winning'. It's really changed the way we've practiced. We don't go days without doing 40 minutes of defense. We changed the way we practiced a little bit, just the way he has it. We normally used to go for offensive scores, but now it's who can get the most stops. He's definitely brought an intensity to that."