Alabama Basketball: What was learned and wasn’t from 20-21 season

Alabama Basketball: The lessons and the questions from the 2020-21 Crimson Tide season.

The plusses far outweigh the minuses in the Alabama Basketball 2020-21 season. The Sweet Sixteen disappointment will fade while the joy of the season’s success will last. Nate Oats, his players and the entire Alabama Basketball staff are to be commended for a job well done.

Recruiting quickly becomes job one for Oats. He has to finish out the 2020-21 roster with one or two more top players. There is another essential component to offseason success. As Nick Saban does every offseason, a self-evaluation process must be meticulously executed. The sooner the better for the self-evaluation.

Alabama basketball fans might want to their own honest evaluation of the ‘state of Alabama Basketball.’ Where is it in terms of strength and weakness? What was learned during the 2020-21 season? Even more importantly, what answers should the program still be seeking?

A few things learned about Alabama Basketball

• The University of Alabama can be a basketball school. It can be, even without a new arena or major renovation of Coleman Coliseum. Though Coleman’s outdated design (and ticket allocation) are hindrances, they are not roadblocks to success.
• Nate Oats’ bold style of play is more than exciting. It mirrors the boldness of his vision. Oats is supremely confident of building and maintaining a championship program.
• As good a coach as Nate Oats is now, he will continue to improve. Oats has been a college head coach for only six seasons. Just eight years since being a high school coach and a math teacher, Oats will keep learning his craft.
• An important lesson for Alabama basketball fans was provided by Alex Reese. Long derided by many fans, Reese made many key plays in the post-season. His last-second, game-tying three against UCLA will be long relished. The shot was true the split-second the ball left Reese’s fingertips.
• The chemistry Nate Oats molded in his players might have been his finest achievement. The love and trust shared by players and coaches were real and were a major factor in the team’s success.

A couple of things not learned

• As Nick Saban often preaches, there must be a plan for everything. But, not even Nick can plan enough to overcome bad luck. There were two results against UCLA that can only be attributed to bad luck. One was an unfortunate ball possession call because the ball grazed John Petty’s shorts. The other was 44 percent free-throw shooting. Should the Tide stop playing in baggy shorts? Is there a magic practice and mental preparation that ensures a future game will not be lost at the foul line? Stats expert, Evan Miyakawa calculated the odds on the Tide’s free throw shooting performance against UCLA. The result was a probability of one-half of one (0.5) percent. Even such a minuscule chance is probably too high for Nate Oats to ignore. We don’t know about the shorts.
• What, if any, tweak does the Oats’ system need to win a National Championship? In what requires six straight wins, are the odds too high, that in at least one game, the threes will not find the net? Making frees would have compensated for 25 percent three-point shooting. More than making foul shots might have been needed against a Michigan, Baylor or Gonzaga.

Speaking of the Aubies, the worst is yet to come. For LSU as well.