re: Tide Hoops | Please Anchor

Nate Oats has a Simple Message for Alabama Basketball: No Defense, No Playing Time (SI)

The Crimson Tide currently ranks No. 81 in adjusted defense, according to the latest KenPom ratings.

No. 24/25 Alabama Heads to Nashville to Face Vanderbilt Tuesday Night

The Crimson Tide and Commodores will tipoff at 8 p.m. CT on SEC Network

The No. 24/25 Alabama men's basketball team will play its penultimate road contest of the 2021-22 regular season when it travels to Nashville, Tenn., to take on the Vanderbilt Commodores Tuesday night at 8 p.m. CT. The contest, which will be televised on SEC Network, will be the only meeting between the two teams in the regular season.

The Crimson Tide most recently had its three-game win streak snapped with a 90-81 loss at then-No. 4 Kentucky last Saturday afternoon. It was the sixth time UA has faced a team ranked in the AP Top-5 this season, which are the most top-five teams played by any team in the regular season since Ohio State faced six top-five teams during the 2012-13 season.

Alabama now turns its attention a Vanderbilt team that has won four of its last seven SEC games after beginning the year 2-5 in league play.

It should be a tightly-contested game if recent history is any indicator as 17 of the last 18 games played between the two teams have been decided by 10 or fewer points. Ten of those contests have been decided by five or fewer points including the Tide's 82-78 victory last season over the Commodores in Tuscaloosa. Alabama and Vanderbilt have split those last 18 games with each winning nine times over the stretch.

quote:

---

I just think they're lost at what to do with this bunch mentally and throwing shite at the wall, to be honest.

---

Part of this issue comes from the different mind set of coaches. Some coaches are dead set on a certain style of offense and defense and try to get players that fit that style. It's all fine if you can get those players. When we lost Primo and Burnett, it put a major kink in things. Other coaches try to finalize their style after they know who they have on their roster and work it around their strengths. Oats seems to be more the former.

For example, I mentioned a few weeks ago that Oats should look at mixing in Gurley in a more traditional post role. He could float between a perimeter 4/5 and the post. It would force our opponent to defend more options and Gurley is comfortable there and seems to have success at it.

As far as defense goes, we don't have a lot of diversity and don't seem to play to the strengths of our guys. On my teams, we use a wide variety of defenses to try to keep the offense off balance to generate more steals and fast breaks. I just don't see that with Bama.
On our roster, we've got some guys that have no business trying to body up a dribbler 22-25 feet from the basket but we constantly see that causing SO many free drives into the lane. Some guys have the desire but not the foot quickness to pull that off.

For the FOGs out there, it's like asking DJ Dale to cover Brock Bowers off the line of scrimmage. If the guy can't physically do something well, don't force it.

In the 3 year tenure of Oats at Alabama, the KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency has been 114, 3, and now 81 while offense has been 37, 31, and 11. Was last year just an outlier defensively? Hopefully the staff can figure something out going forward because the offense works.

There's numerous of guys that needs to return including Keon Ellis but JQ & Shack can go just my opinion.

quote:

---

In the 3 year tenure of Oats at Alabama, the KenPom adjusted defensive efficiency has been 114, 3, and now 81 while offense has been 37, 31, and 11. Was last year just an outlier defensively? Hopefully the staff can figure something out going forward because the offense works.

---

It was probably an outlier in the sense that we're unlikely to have another Herb anytime soon, and he's such a skilled, versatile defender that his presence on the court covers up a ton of weaknesses.

I think the big issue is that our guards fricking suck arse on defense and have all 3 seasons under Oats. Our wings have mostly been capable defenders, but the guards have been consistently awful. Guards who are out there playing matador defense the way Quinerly and JD (and Kira and Bolden before them) do make things much, much harder on everyone else. Last year between Herb, Petty, Ellis, and Primo we could run a 1 guard, 3 wing, 1 forward type lineup that had 4 talented, switchable defenders out there most of the time. 3 of those guys are gone now and one of the guys brought in to replace them tore his ACL last summer.

quote:

---

Guys like Burnett, Miller, Bradley, and Griffen while Miles and Holt continue to progress gives us much stronger perimeter defenders for next year. We should be a terror in the passing lanes with that group.

---

That's my hope. These guys are all long (Bradley is the shortest but he has long arms and probably a 6'6" wingspan) and should be really switchable. If your defense is predicated on ball pressure and switching everything, dudes like JQ and Shack playing 25-30 minutes a night is going to make that really difficult.

Probably Bradley or a transfer, but I'd expect at least one of those 3 to return

Didn’t realize Q was nearby 24 so I assume he will be gone. If I had to bet I would put money on JD. He SHOULD return anyway