Alabama Basketball: Tide win over KSU did not follow Nate Oats’ plan
By Ronald Evans
Minus the final score, a quick look at the Alabama basketball vs. Kansas State stat sheet would lead to a belief the Wildcats had won.
Alabama basketball won again Saturday night. The Crimson Tide topped Kansas State for its eighth win in the last 10 games. The 77-74 victory was achieved despite failing to execute core Nate Oats’ principles.
A Nate Oats team is supposed to take more shots than the opponent. Kansas State attempted 74 field goals to the Tide’s 43 attempts. The Nate Oats system is designed to shoot more threes than opponents. Kansas State shot 29 to the Tide’s 22. In any coach’s basketball system, the winning team is not supposed to be minus-19 in offensive rebounds.
All of those key data points were in favor of Kansas State Saturday night in Tuscaloosa. The Alabama Crimson Tide won anyway. What did Oats have to say?
Nate Oats said he's proud of his team for getting the win, but there's "a lot of stuff to learn from the game. Our offensive rebounding that we gave up was disastrous. ... Our turnovers were still too high."
— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) January 26, 2020
A tight first half never had more than five points separating the teams. KSU led 37-36 at the break. The Crimson Tide exploded at the start of the second half and quickly pushed out to a six-point lead. After KSU cut the lead to two points, the Crimson Tide went on a 14-0 run, pushing the lead to 16 points with 12:14 left in the game.
Less than six minutes later, KSU had trimmed the lead to a single point. The middle of the second half went so well for the Wildcats, at one point they even banked in a three off the glass. From the 6:34 point of the second half, Alabama basketball made only three more field goals. Kira Lewis had two layups, one of them a spinning, twisting, flash to the basket. Alex Reese added one made three.
In the last two minutes of the contest, the Crimson Tide added eight points from the foul line on 12 attempts. Also in the last two minutes, the Crimson Tide fought off KSU on the glass, gaining a closing 7-6 rebound edge. In the other 18 minutes of the second half, KSU built a 20-10 rebound advantage.
Needless to say, the last two minutes were crucial to the Tide victory. Given the full game disparities discussed above, how else did the Tide find a way to win? Credit Nate Oats who has built a fighting spirit in his team. Eight Tide blocks to two for KSU and nine Tide steals to KSU’s five made a difference between a win and a loss.
Still, Nate Oats was not satisfied with the Tide’s effort leading to surrendering 22 offensive rebounds.
Nate Oats: "I was really frustrated. We want to be tougher than the teams that we play ... and they destroyed us on the glass."
— Charlie Potter (@Charlie_Potter) January 26, 2020
Speaking of the teams the Tide plays – the schedule suddenly takes a tough turn. On the road to LSU, home to Arkansas and Tennessee, then on the road to Georgia and Auburn and back home for LSU. None of the six games will be easy. Beating the Bulldogs in Athens is perhaps the easiest task. Getting the home wins and a road win over Georgia would be outstanding.
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Kira Lewis Jr. led the Crimson Tide with 26 points. Lewis also tied Jaden Shackelford as leading rebounder with seven.