Alabama basketball's Nate Oats reveals big 'problem' vs. Duke wasn't Cooper Flagg
03/30/2025 11:00 AM
Alabama basketball's NCAA Tournament journey has ended, and head coach Nate Oats explained that it wasn't solely a Cooper Flagg problem on the other end against Duke.
Before the 85-65 loss, the Crimson Tide experienced the hurricane that many teams previously have this season. Duke's star trio of Flagg, Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel combined for 54, and received a great deal of help from the Blue Devils role players — like 7-foot-2 freshman center Khaman Maluach.
While Alabama struggled enough defensively, difficulty with scoring the basketball early on became their undoing. Oats mentioned that Duke's 15-5 run to open up the game was because of one particular member of the Blue Devils.
Alabama basketball struggles against Duke's Khaman Maluach
There wasn't much the Crimson Tide could do in response to the slow start against the No. 1 opponent.
“We made the point to our guys, we’re not going to go in and score on him, and we had a few guys still try to challenge him,” Oats said. “It’s kind of a habit, you can tell them going in. And then he ended up having two blocks. We ended up having more blocks than them, but the way he challenges, it’s a problem. He challenges at the rim.”
Flagg's on-ball defense against Alabama's senior guard Mark Sears was certainly noticeable. He held Alabama's 34-point scorer from the Sweet Sixteen to just six points on Saturday.
However, to Oats' point, the Crimson Tide could've been more evenly matched if not for Maluach's imposing presence inside. Alabama hadn't faced such a challenge all season.
Every team remaining in the field can score the basketball at this stage. But defense, that separates the "good" from the national champion.
Simply put, there's no longer a formidable Duke Big Three to worry about. There's officially a Big Four headed to the Final Four in San Antonio.
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