Nate Oats is feeling fantastic at the moment, following the accomplishment of leading the Alabama Crimson Tide to the Final Four.
It’s been an impressive run for the Crimson Tide, but they’ll have their toughest test yet this weekend, as they’re matched up against the reigning, defending national champions of the college basketball world in the Connecticut Huskies.
That means keeping distractions to a minimum will be key to Alabama’s success moving forward. However, Oats recognizes that’s easier said than done when you’re in the Final Four, but he certainly has a plan.
“Exciting time for our program. Unchartered territories. For the program, for myself. I’ve never coached one of these. So super excited. We’re trying to keep the distractions to a minimum, knowing that it’s a lot of hype surrounding the Final Four that’s going to be a big distraction to players. But I think our guys stayed pretty locked in during the Sweet 16 week, and were really focused on what they had to do against Carolina and Clemson. I’m hoping were able to maintain the same focus,” Oats told the media. “UConn’s obviously super talented. I mean, they’re picked to win it. They’ve kind of run through the tournament the last year and this year.
“I don’t think they’ve even had a single digit win. So you know, we’ve got a daunting task in front of us.”
Even though the Huskies present a tremendous challenge, Oats is giving his Alabama team everything they need to capture victory in the Final Four.
“We’re gonna give our guys a game plan, and they’ve done a pretty good job getting locked into the scouting reports here, these last four games in the tournament,” Oats added. “We’re going to give them a game plan that will give us a chance, and we’re gonna have to make some shots. UConn’s going to need to miss some shots. We’re going to try to play the way we play. We’re not going to change our style. We’re going to try to play fast. You know, UConn’s transition game’s elite, so it’s not like they’re going to slow it down on us when they get in the half-court. Their sets run a little longer. So if you guys that have gotten all the analytics look at their tempo slow, like it shows on KenPom, it’s more because they’re half-court sets are pretty elaborate, and take some time. It’s not because they don’t run.
“If you watch their 30-0 run on Illinois, they get out and run. So our transition defense has gotta be great. They will run on you just if they don’t get a layup. They I mean, they probably run the best sets of anybody I’ve seen all year, so we’ve got to do a great job in transition. We’ve got to do a great job guarding in the half court. We’ve got to do a great job rebounding it, because they get you on the offensive boards. They’ve got the, you know we had the No. 1 offense in the country for a while. Now they have the No. 1 offense in the country now, but they also a top five defense. So they’ve kind of combined both sides of the ball that are elite, and we’ve got our hands full.”
We’ll see if Alabama is able to defeat the Huskies, and continue their amazing run all the way to the finale of the 2024 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
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