Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats Says Tide Needs to Handle Next Off Week Better

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Alabama head coach Nate Oats was perturbed with the Tide's effort following a week off after the end of the regular season before the SEC tournament, and the lack of effort showed on the court in the first half of Alabama's 80-79 loss to Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the SEC tournament.

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In the first half, Ole Miss averaged 1.343 points per possession. In the second half, Alabama woke up and played better defensively, with the Rebels averaging just 0.917 points per possession.

"I don't know if conditioning slipped as much as our edge, just how sharp we were. I didn't do a good job managing that six days, I don't think," Oats said after Alabama's loss to Ole Miss on Friday. "We should have gone harder. I really swung the pendulum really far, making sure that we were fresh, injury-free. Didn't do much in practice. It was kind of the vibe I got from the team.

"Obviously, it wasn't the right thing to do. I did look at our practice the last time we won this thing. We got after it pretty hard on Monday. We didn't do that this year just 'cause we've had so many injuries. I didn't want to risk getting an injury. Obviously, I made the wrong decision. So it's pretty easy to second-guess yourself afterwards. Yeah, I didn't do that one right this week."

Alabama will face a seven-day break between its loss to the Rebels in the SEC tournament and the start of the NCAA tournament. Management of the Tide's seven-day break will be crucial as Alabama faces a Hofstra offense that ranks in the top 100 in adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency, according to Bart Torvik. The Pride also ranks in the top ten in effective field goal percentage defensively.

"We're gonna have to come in, take them super serious. We're gonna have to be ready to go. We're gonna have to manage the week a little bit better than we handled last week, in my opinion," Oats said on Sunday afternoon. "We played Saturday and not until Friday. Now we're gonna play Friday and then Friday. We've got a week off, but we can't take a week off.

"We took Saturday and then very light today. Just a lot of skill. Tomorrow we're gonna have to get after it a lot more than what we've done last week. We need the guys sharp. We need them to be able to play. The coaches are working right now on getting a really good game plan together on Hofstra. We'll come in tomorrow morning with a really good plan.

"It's gonna be tough. They got a really good backcourt. I got to get - I haven't watched a ton. They gave me a brief - our staff was good. They had done a brief scouting report on the potential 13 seeds. Hofstra was one of them. They had a little bit of a head start, but we didn't want to go all-in on all possibilities with how much volatility there is on Selection Sunday. They got me enough of a heads-up. They don't play that fast. They kind of control tempo. But they're top-40 in three-point percentage. Borderline top-100 in three-point rate. They get a decent amount of threes up. They're good on both sides of the ball. Top 100 in offense and defensive adjusted efficiency on KenPom.

"Shoot, their effective field-goal percentage [defense] is [top 10]. It's hard to do that at that level. Their two-point percentage is pretty good, too. This is a good team. They're third in the country in two-point percentage defense. This team is good. We're gonna have to play a lot better than we did Friday night up in Nashville," Oats added.

No. 4 Alabama will face No. 13 Hofstra on Friday, March 20, in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Tampa, Florida. Tip-off is scheduled for 2:15 p.m. CT

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Wyatt Fulton is the Tide 100.9 DME and Brand Manager, primarily covering Alabama Crimson Tide football and men's basketball. For more Crimson Tide coverage, follow Wyatt on X (Formerly known as Twitter) at @FultonW_.