Crimson Tide Depth Wore Down Gaels in Victory

Cleveland, Ohio. - The Crimson Tide had six players score 10 points or more in the 80-66 victory over Saint Mary's in the NCAA tournament round of 32, one less than Saint Mary's players who had more than 10 minutes played in the contest.

Get our free mobile app

Alabama's depth was something the Crimson Tide was able to lean on throughout the victory, and Alabama head coach Nate Oats mentioned that in his victory press conference on Sunday night.

"Yeah, I thought we wore them out, particularly towards the end of the first half," Oats said. "Like you said, they kind of play a seven-man rotation. Hardaway played just under two minutes, and then that was it for their eighth guy. So, seven guys played the bulk of the minutes. Saxen played over 39, Erik played almost 37, Marciulionis over 34, Ross over 34. So four of their starters were over 34 minutes.

If you look at us, we didn't have anybody over -- the most minutes -- Labaron led us in minutes with 28 and seven seconds, and nobody had over 27 minutes really. And then we played, what, nine guys double-digit minutes. We got a lot of contributors."

Philon was one of five Alabama players who did not notch double-digits in the scoring column, but he did lead the way with five assists while collecting six rebounds himself in the win.

"At the end of the first half, they finished the half 1 and 12 from the floor. I thought we kind of wore them out. Then they had to call time-out there in the second half with nine minutes and change, if I'm right. It was probably a smart time-out," Oats continued. "He's coached a lot of games, got to rest his guys, and he got a media time-out a minute later. I thought we were able to get into their lack of depth a little bit, and with the pace that they typically play, I don't think that ever really affects them."

"But we looked at possessions, I think the last time they had a 70 -- I think they've only had two 70-possession games all year, and one was against a non-Division I, and one was against Akron the third game of the year in November. So we were about to get it to 70, not 80 like we like to get, but against a team like that, you're kind of winning the tempo war if you can get it to 70. The first team over 80 on them in over 100-plus games."

Saint Mary's had 72 possessions on the night - seven more than the average possessions per game for the Gaels.

"So I think our depth, our tempo did get to them, but they're tough, they're physical. They ended up with 15 O-boards, which is way too many. But their offensive rebounding rate was 36 percent. That's a lot higher than what we wanted, but we ended up winning the second-chance points," Oats said.

Alabama outscored Saint Mary's 10-9 in second-chance points and outrebounded Saint Mary's in total with 41 rebounds compared to 36 for the Gaels.

"So I did tell our guys going in, just because you give up an O-board -- like in our practices, we give points for O-boards. But there's no points for an O-board in a game. There's only points if the ball goes through the rim. We're going to give up some O-boards. We're not going to pitch a shutout. They're that good. Once we give up an O-board, we've got get a stop."

"Chris Youngblood got in there, got that steal late. I told our guards we've got to have all of you in the mix. We need you getting rebounds. If they get it, we need to have you stripping their bigs after they get it. Labaron ends up three steals, six defensive rebounds. Can't say enough about our guards making tough plays, I thought, helping rebound. I thought we did a good job with some of that stuff."

Oats also said this year's depth, despite the injuries suffered, is potentially more equipped for a deep tournament run than last year's team was.

"Yeah, for sure. We're definitely deeper with more guys available," Oats said. "I thought Derrion Reid was great on Friday. Didn't work out to play him as many minutes this game, but we have guys 10. I'm comfortable playing double digit minutes. Grant Nelson was hurt. We got away without playing him hardly at all. Darrion was part of that, being able to not play Grant until about seven minutes to go in that game."

"Whether it's injuries, foul trouble, just depth to wear teams out, guys just not playing well and you need somebody else to step up, I definitely think we've got it. No doubt, they stepped up big from last year's run, even today. They went two bigs a lot. Two seven-footers out there."

"So he didn't play as many minutes maybe as we normally would have liked him to do because we played Aiden Sherrell, Cliff and Grant a lot of minutes, and Aiden and Cliff don't really play together much. Tonight we did a lot more. Mo's minutes weren't what we like to get him, and I'm sure they'll go up moving forward. But shoot, you look at what he did in 15 minutes, he had 10 and 5 in 15 minutes."

"We've got guys that have efficient games, too, like Derrion Reid scored nine points in, what, 10 minutes or so on Friday, whatever it was. Guys are able to have efficient minutes and play efficient in their minutes, which I think is big, as well."

The Sportsbook at Pearl River Resort sponsors our coverage of the NCAA tournament. Located at Golden Moon Hotel & Casino, it offers traditional sports betting, where guests can bet on all professional league sports and major collegiate sporting events.

Taco Casa also sponsors our coverage of the NCAA tournament. Under the biggest cactus in town, Taco Casa serves authentic, great-tasting food and award-winning sweet tea in Tuscaloosa. The quality, taste, and tradition that truly are Tuscaloosa. 

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_.