Nate Oats Addresses Alabama 3-Point Shooting Slump

Alabama basketball has not been shooting the ball well from beyond the arc over the last few games. The Crimson Tide is 25-116 (21.6%) from three in its last four games. For reference, five games ago the team shot 16-34 (47.1%) in a 108-59 blowout win over Georgia and the team is 309-912 (33.9%) on the season.

It is no secret that this Crimson Tide team would like to find its groove again from deep, and head coach Nate Oats hopes that almost a full week of rest and some deep diving by the coaching staff will provide some answers come Friday.

"We obviously haven't shot the ball well," Oats said. "We looked at every single one of our shooters, every 3-point attempt they've taken on the year, and we analyzed every one. What are they doing different on makes versus misses?"

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That is some attention to detail by the Alabama coaching staff. The team perused 912 shots in order to try to find anything that might help the team or a player be more successful from downtown.

Oats mentioned a lot of little things that have resulted in players missing on 3-point attempts. Some players were leaning out of their shots, some were not getting enough lift (from their lower body) and others were not holding their follow through.

"Some little details were addressed. Hopefully you'll see some results this weekend because it would certainly help if we made shots at a little higher level," Oats said.

Alabama will play either Mississippi State or Florida in their first game of the SEC Tournament. Those two teams will play each other on Thursday and Alabama will play the winner on Friday at noon.

Alabama defeated Florida 97-69 at the beginning of February and shot 15-34 (44.1%) from three. The Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs twice in the regular season and shot a combined 17-60 (28.3%) from deep. The three point victory by the Tide at home in January over Mississippi State was one of the worst shooting games of the year for Alabama. The team was 5-28 (17.9%) from deep in that matchup.

Oats believes the six days off have helped the Crimson Tide and said the team set a program record for a 3-point shooting drill that they do in practice.

"I feel like we're shooting the ball a little better which would help the situation out. I think our guy's got some confidence back," Oats said. "We're getting ourselves back to being the best version of us we can be."