It has been exactly five months since Alabama ended a disjointed men’s basketball season with a first-round loss to Notre Dame in the NCAA tournament.
Fading that March afternoon in San Diego seemed predictable for a team that also made a quick exit from the SEC tournament and bungled too many of its regular season games.
Speaking Thursday evening on the first “Hey Coach” radio show of the fall, Nate Oats revisited some of what wrong in his third season as Alabama’s coach while looking ahead to the coming season.
“We really got to make sure that everybody is bought into whatever they can do to help the team win,” Oats said, repeating a theme he raised in May. “I think we got a little off track with that last year. I think we had some guys really concerned about their personal, individual stats, goals. I think they could see the year before when everybody just cared about the team, the individual stuff got taken care of, as well.”
It was something Oats brought up at times last season, pointing out how players such as Herb Jones and Joshua Primo were not necessarily stat-sheet stars during Alabama’s Sweet Sixteen run a season prior but both benefited from the team winning. Primo became the No. 12 overall pick in the 2021 NBA draft, while Jones was a second-round pick who quickly blossomed into one of the league’s best rookies.
“When your team wins, your individual stuff gets taken care of,” Oats continued Thursday. “When you’re worried about your individual stats and the team doesn’t do as well.”
The 2022 NBA draft was not as kind to Alabama players, with guard JD Davison -- considered a potential lottery pick when he arrived in Tuscaloosa as a five-star prospect -- falling to No. 53. Two other guards in Keon Ellis and Jaden Shackelford were not drafted.
“If you notice, some of the guys maybe could have got drafted then, some of the guys dropped in the draft,” Oats told the Crimson Tide Sports Network on Thursday. “It’s a big deal whether your team is winning or not. Let’s put all the individual stuff aside.”
Although he did not name any players, Oats suggested family members might have played a part in the team’s chemistry being off.
“Some of these guys got parents that are [involved],” he said. “Which is great, we’ve got really good parents. But parents tend to want to be about their own kid, not the team. Let’s make sure that we’re -- our uncle, cousin, sister, brother, parents -- that’s great, I love their support -- but let’s make sure if they’re not telling you what’s appropriate for the team to be great, let’s be sure we’re listening to the right things. I think that’s the big focus.
“Because we’ve got the talent to win. We’ve just got to keep the chemistry, the camaraderie, the leadership. Our leadership has got to be good.”
Beyond the three players who turned professional, Alabama had five players transfer elsewhere this offseason. Of its 11 scholarship players who played in a three-game foreign exhibition tour to Spain and France last week, eight were either new to the team or did not play last season.
Freshman Brandon Miller headlined a group of newcomers that included a pair of Division I transfers in Mark Sears and Dom Welch, a junior college transfer in Nick Pringle, and three other freshmen in Jaden Bradley, Noah Clowney and Rylan Griffen. Third-year guard Nimari Burnett, after missing last season because of a knee injury, will also be playing his first official game for Alabama this fall.
Miller, a McDonald’s All-American, led Alabama in averaging 22 points over its three games. The first two games came against competition Oats acknowledged Thursday was “not very good” from Spain and Lithuania, with Alabama winning both by a combined margin of 103 points. But the finale of the trip was a more hard-fought 12-point win over China’s national team.
Alabama trailed China in the first half and shot only 6-of-32 on three pointers, which Oats attributed in part to a lack of practice time. Oats, though, was encouraged by 21 offensive rebounds as well as balanced scoring across the entire trip.
“We had six players average double figures or more,” Oats noted Thursday. “Brandon Miller led us in scoring. Mark Sears, Darius Miles, Dom Welch, Noah Clowney and Nimari Burnett all averaged double figures. To have three games and have six guys average double figures is pretty good balance.
“I think we’re gonna be a lot more balanced this year. If certain guys are maybe struggling, I think other guys can step up.”
Defense was an area where Oats wanted to see his team continue to improve into the fall. The coach has cited a lack of size last season as one reason for its KenPom defensive efficiency slipping from third in the country in 2020-21 to 92nd.
“We’re gonna be a better defensive team than we were last year,” he said. “We can be a lot bigger but our defensive chemistry just has to continue to get better and we’ve got to figure that out.”
Oats reiterated Thursday that junior forward Darius Miles has emerged as a “vocal leader” but he would like to see others step up this season, too.
“Let’s get some other guys -- Noah Gurley,” Oats said. “Can we get Brandon [Miller], even though he’s a freshman? Can we get our point guards, Sears and Jaden, being a little bit more leaders? We’ve got to get some better leadership and just get our chemistry right.”
Alabama has not yet released its full non-conference schedule that will begin in November, but some of its confirmed games are against Gonzaga, Memphis, at Houston, and against Michigan State in a Thanksgiving-week tournament.
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi projected Alabama as a No. 6 seed in his latest 2023 NCAA tournament bracket earlier this month. Preseason basketball polls will be released in October.
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @mikerodak.
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