Nate Oats has reached his breaking point.
Alabama’s men’s basketball coach said Monday that he is done giving minutes to players who do not play defense, saying he will find the five players who give the most effort and go from there.
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Oats sent the message when previewing Tuesday’s game at Vanderbilt. After taking the rare -- if not unprecedented -- step of not offering an opening statement, Oats immediately began taking questions from reporters with a noticeable edge.
“Really all I want to see is guys play hard on the defensive end and buy in‚” Oats said after Monday’s practice. “We just lost to Kentucky when they had three guys who played 39 minutes. If we can get a shortened rotation, a smaller group of guys that are just going to play hard on defense, no matter what position they are ... we can go big, small, whatever we have to do. But we have to find five guys that are bought into playing defense as hard as they can play and wanting to get stops.”
Alabama is No. 11 in offensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com, but dropped to No. 81 in defensive efficiency after losing 90-81 to Kentucky on Saturday. The Wildcats, which were without starting guards Sahvir Wheeler and TyTy Washington, used only 12 total minutes of bench players and scored 1.5 points per possession.
“Really, offense hasn’t been our problem most of the year,” Oats said. “Our defense is our problem. We’re gonna put guys in the game that are going to play defense. I don’t really care how talented an offensive player you are -- if you’re not going to guard on the defensive end, you’re not gonna play from here on out.”
Oats also gave a hint as to which players he might be considering benching.
“It’s definitely a challenge [to players],” Oats said. “We’re not playing you if you don’t play defense, period. I don’t care if we don’t have a center on the floor. I don’t care if we don’t have a point guard on the floor. I really will put five guys out there and figure the offense out. We’ve got enough talented offensive players. We’ll figure the offense out.
“If you’re not going to play defense at the level we need you to play and you’re capable of playing and have shown us you have played in the past -- because every guy we’ve played in the rotation has shown us they’re more than capable of being a great defender when they’re locked into that end of the floor.
“So if you’re not gonna do that, then we’re not gonna play you. That’s just the bottom line. Kentucky played three guys 39 minutes. I don’t have to find guys. We’ll play some guys that we know are going to play hard most of the minutes in the game, and that’s what we’re going to go with.
“Yeah, it’s definitely a challenge to the team. But it’s gotten to the point where, no -- you’re not going to play. It’s a challenge to you individually if you want to get any minutes and if we put you in and you’re not going to play hard on defense, you’re going to come right back out and you’re going to sit there for a long time, if not the rest of the game.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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