Nate Oats is never one to hold his tongue. The Alabama basketball coach freely speaks his mind and often sends messages to his team through the media, much like legendary football coach Nick Saban always did. The difference between the two is that Oats is never subtle about his messages.
On Friday, Oats delivered a direct message to two of his veteran leaders 24 hours ahead of the biggest Iron Bowl of Basketball in series history. When asked what needs to happen to curtail turnovers, particularly against an Auburn team that is one of the best defensive teams in college basketball, Oats had this to say:
"We need Mark Sears and Grant Nelson to stop turning the ball over. That's what needs to happen."
Alabama has turned it over on 17.7% of its possessions this year, which is a sub-200 mark in D-1. In conference play, that has gone up to 18.7%, which ranks 12th out of 16 SEC teams.
It has been a struggle for Sears and Nelson, especially recently. Sears has 21 assists and 22 turnovers over the last four games. Prior to only turning it over three times in Tuesday's win at Texas, Sears turned it over six times against Arkansas, six times against Georgia, and seven times against Mississippi State.
Nelson, despite not spending as much time on the ball as he did last season, has turned it over multiple times in eight of Alabama's last 10 games. That included a five-turnover night in Alabama's lone SEC loss at home against Ole Miss.
Nelson can be a matchup problem off the dribble. He's tough to deal with going to the basket when he gets a head of steam, but he has struggled to maintain his dribble and avoid turnovers in those moments. He has the highest turnover rate on the team at 20.0.
Sears has a tendency to over-dribble and gets himself in trouble underneath the basket too often. He's still Alabama's best at beating his defender off the dribble and getting to the basket, but he tries forcing things too much and it has led to a huge uptick in turnovers recently.
Moving Sears off the ball a little more and funneling the offense through Aden Holloway or Labaron Philon could be a wrinkle Oats explores, though it's obvious and understandable that his trust in Sears is higher.
Holloway has been exceptional at avoiding turnovers with a rate of 12.6%, which is far and away the best mark on the team.
Oats coaches this team hard and in particular he has had no issues calling out this team's leaders. Sears and Nelson will likely respond in a big way moving forward.