Nate Oats Following 105-82 Victory Over South Dakota State Sunday

Following Alabama's 23-point victory over South Dakota State on Sunday, Crimson Tide men's basketball coach Nate Oats spoke with the media about the team's performance.

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Nate Oats began his post-game press conference by praising his team's performance, saying, "I thought it was a good one for us to get some confidence for some shooters" with young players like Aden Holloway and Labaron Philon making some three-pointers, with Holloway leading the team with eight.

Oats went on to critique his team's performance in the second half, stating, "We didn't play as hard as we needed to at the start of the second half." The Crimson Tide went scoreless for the first four minutes of the second half and allowed ten points during that stretch.

Alabama's fifth-year head coach went on to laud the Crimson Tide's sophomore forward, who had seven offensive rebounds and 11 overall boards to go with six points and three steals, saying, "We need some more guys to bring the effort that he (Dioubate) brings."

Oats went on to discuss Derrion Reid's condition, stating that Reid hurt his ankle during practice a few days ago and hopes to recover in time for Alabama's conference opener against Oklahoma next Saturday at Coleman Coliseum.

To close his post-game press conference, Oats discussed the looming gauntlet of a schedule, with conference play beginning and the SEC having five teams presently ranking in the AP top ten and ten teams in the top twenty-five. Oats continued: "I think there is a lot that we need to be better at, and there's a lot that we need to clean up to be competing for a championship in this league but I do think that we test ourselves against some of the better teams in the country and we've done pretty well at times."

Nate Oats and the Crimson Tide will prepare for Saturday, January 4th, 2025, when they face the #12th-ranked Oklahoma Sooners at Coleman Coliseum to begin conference play.

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