Nate Oats gets 100% real on Alabama basketball's success

Yesterday at 02:15 PM

It’s been another wondrous start for Alabama basketball, as the Crimson Tide sit No. 5 in the country at 13-2 and undefeated in the SEC. Head coach Nate Oats didn’t hold back when discussing his team’s success, ahead of a huge matchup with No. 10 Texas A&M on Saturday.

“We’re hard-playing, play fast, take a lot threes, spread the floor out, the guys play with a lot of freedom,” Oats said on College GameDay.

“We use the blue-collar mentality. We try to play fast but we don’t want to be Hollywood, we want to get down and guard people. We’re still working on that side of it this year. We’ve had it a little bit. We beat Houston who’s pretty tough, hard-nosed. It shows up occasionally. It needs to show up tonight here at A&M.”

Alabama basketball in crucial spot against Texas A&M

One thing we know for certain ahead of the big Saturday night clash, is that one will be getting its first SEC loss of the 2024-25 campaign. Alabama and Texas A&M are both 2-o in conference play, albeit in one of the most competitive leagues that college basketball has seen in recent memory.

The Crimson Tide plan to play fast and use their depth, despite the task of allocating minutes in the rotation.

“It’s extremely hard,” Oats said. “Ideally you don’t play 10 or 11 guys. Everyone deserves to play, so we’re going to continue working on it. Some of the guys who are really good, who are used to playing more minutes have already said they’re willing to sacrifice minutes. That’s what it takes to win championships and win at a high level. We’ll figure it out, but right now it’s going to be a 10-man rotation tonight.”

Alabama and Texas A&M square off at Reed Arena in College Station, TX at 8:00 PM ET.

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