TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Tennessee basketball earned its fifth straight win over rival Alabama Saturday night, outlasting the Crimson Tide 78-73.
Following the game, Oats discussed being down two key players, Tennessee’s defense and much more. Here’s everything Oats said.
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Opening statement
“Obviously not the outcome we were looking for. You’ve gotta give Tennessee a ton of credit. They had a week off just like we did. They came ready to go. Defensively, we weren’t as good as I thought we needed to be the first half, and then we’ve had a major issue with second-half starts. And that 3-point lead, I felt like, should have been a lot bigger if we’d have taken care of a few things on the defensive end in the first half, and then all of a sudden, it disappeared immediately in the second half. They went from down three to up six pretty quick. So, we’ve gotta figure out how to have a lot better starts to the second half.
“We’ve gotta figure out how to make tougher plays. This is a team, Tennessee, that’s typically one of the toughest teams, as far as physicality, effort, rebounding, all that tough stuff, they’re one of the tougher teams in the league. And I thought for the first half, we had some more mental mistakes, but we were up three on the glass, and then we ended up getting out-rebounded by 12 in the second half. Obviously, Aiden Sherrell being in foul trouble didn’t help any of that, because he’s been our best rebounder, and he didn’t play a lot in the second half due to foul trouble. So, we’ve gotta find a way to keep him out of foul trouble.
“We’ve gotta do a better job, and this is — we’ve had too many guys get their season-highs on us. Nate Ament comes out, scores a season-high on us. Did a great job. We obviously know he’s a talented player. He’s supposed to go in the lottery. We didn’t have anybody really step up and do a great job stopping him. On the offensive end, they did a really good job making sure the ball didn’t move, and we didn’t move it enough. We only had nine assists. Outside of Baron, we had two guys that had one assist each. So, obviously, Tennessee’s a really good defensive team, but we didn’t do a good job attacking them, in large part due to us not getting enough stops, particularly in the second half, and being able to get out in transition. We didn’t hardly have any transition buckets, which is not how we’re supposed to play.
“And it’s frustrating. That’s a good team. We’ve now lost back-to-back home games. We had a great crowd. I thought they were unbelievable. Thank them for coming out and giving us exactly what we needed, but we didn’t give them a good enough show like we should have. So, frustrating, but we’ve got to get ready to play Missouri. It’s a quick turnaround. Got them on Tuesday. And they’re good. They play up and down. So, the only thing we can do is focus on what we need to do to get better moving forward, and we’ve got to be a lot better than what we were tonight, that’s for sure.”
On Alabama missing starters Aden Holloway and Amari Allen due to injury
“They both got injured in the Oklahoma game, and I was really hoping they’d both play, as was Clarke, our trainer, tonight, and they just didn’t come around as quick as we’d have liked. They’re doing everything they can, Clarke’s doing everything he can. Neither one of them are supposed to be considered long-term, so I would hope — I certainly think that they’ll play (on Tuesday). But I thought they were gonna play tonight, to be honest with you.”
On Charles Bediako’s performance
“I thought he was good. I thought he meshed well with our guys early. I thought Labaron found him on some lobs. He got the dunk to start. His first block, it was great. He hit that little slip on the underneath out of bounds. For a guy that’s only been here a few days to fit in with the team — he hadn’t actually played with any of these guys, even though he’d been in our system before. I thought he was good. I mean, he almost led us in blue-collar points. And he’s got to get a few more rebounds for us. He knows it. And he was telling me that in the first half when he came out. But the guys all loved him. He’s a great teammate. He’s going to help us moving forward. We’ve just got to get him to rebound the ball a little bit better, particularly on the defensive end.”
On how Aden Holloway’s absence impacted Alabama on offense
“It hurt a lot. I mean, we need him. He’s one of the best guards in the country. And not having him out there certainly didn’t help anything. It puts a lot of pressure on Labaron, and then Wrightsell had to do a lot of playmaking today, which is fine. He’s good at it. But then he doesn’t get as many catch-and-shoot threes. And we didn’t shoot it well from three tonight, 23%. Holloway would have definitely helped with that. But I can’t even make excuses as to why we lost. I mean, we put five really good players out there at all times, just like Tennessee did, and we didn’t have enough tonight.”
On Alabama’s free throw shooting
“I mean, guys had a week off. They got in the gym. They worked at it. Obviously, it was bolstered by Labaron and Trelly going 12-for-13 between them. Honestly, the rest of them, outside of Charles, wasn’t what we needed. So, we’re going to keep emphasizing that. We’re going to have them get in and shoot, because Charles, Labaron and Trelly go 15-for-17, and everybody else goes 2-for-7. And two of those misses were the front-end of one-on-ones, if I remember right. So, we left a lot of points on the board. We actually shot a little bit better than they did. We were 71; they were 68% at the line. But we’re not trying to compare ourselves to the other team at the line. We’re trying to shoot closer to 80%. We got to get guys that should be making them to step up and make them, and they need to make them.”
On Alabama losing its fifth straight game to Tennessee
“Not good. They’re really good. We haven’t been good enough. The one up there really hurt last year. I got a lot of respect for Coach Barnes. I mean, he’s one of the best to do it in the last 20, 30 years in college basketball. He’s done a great job against us. We have to do a better job prepping our guys. I thought they made good adjustments in the second half. They went to switch on the ball screens after we had some success against their other coverages in the first half. He had a week to get his guys ready to go, and he did a good job getting them ready to go. I didn’t do a good enough job having our guys ready. And he’s a really good coach. When we first got in the league, we had some success with them, but here lately — and we’ve been pretty good. I mean, we’re one of the better teams in the league these last two, three years. For whatever reason, we haven’t had so much success with them.
“And a lot to do with the way that they guard, and they’re tough physically, and they make it hard, and they take away your threes. We’ve just got to have a better plan on offense, but on the defensive end, we’ve got to do a better job, particularly rebounding the ball. They emphasize toughness, physicality, and we’ve got to do a better job countering that. Hopefully, we see them again in the SEC Tournament to have a second crack at them, because if we do, I’m sure it’ll be later in the tournament, and we’re both still playing. But they’re a really good team. We don’t get them again this year unless it’s in the SEC Tournament. Or do we? We do. We have to go up there, don’t we? That’s on me. Never mind the SEC Tournament. We’ll get them up there, and hopefully, we’re a lot better prepared to play them up there than we were this time at home.”
