NCAA MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - IONA VS ALABAMA

March 20, 2021

Nate Oats

Hinkle Fieldhouse

Alabama Crimson Tide

Postgame Media Conference

Alabama 68, Iona 55

NATE OATS: Definitely not one of our better games. Got to give Iona a ton of credit. I thought their kids came ready to play. They've got some good players. Obviously, Coach Pitino had them well prepared. I thought Ross gave us all kinds of problems in the first half. I thought the difference between the two halves, our defense on Ross, we held him to four points in the second half after 15 in the first half.

I thought our turnover problem in the first half, we went from ten turnovers in the first half to only four in the second half. Our points per possession went from like a .89 to a 1.21 in the second half when we quit turning the ball over. When you turn the ball over, you don't make free throws, you put a lot of pressure on your offense.

The free throws were an issue, which hopefully we can get that fixed. Just guys that typically are better shooters. Quinerly left four points out there. I think he missed the front end of a one-on-one twice. Petty is a great shooter. Those guys left a lot of points on the board.

The turnovers were a problem. But Iona came ready to play. I thought our effort was great. I just thought maybe got some NCAA game jitters. I don't know what it is, to be honest with you. Hopefully getting that first game out of the way, getting the win even when we didn't play well. I thought our defense was pretty good, especially there in the second half.

If you look at the effort stuff, on the glass we beat 'em by 16, it was 42-26. I thought a lot of the effort stuff we did great at, we just have to settle down and play a better offensive game.

THE MODERATOR: Questions.

Q. Didn't handle the last minute of the first half very well. What did you say at halftime? How did you think they responded?

NATE OATS: We were up eight with under 2 minutes to go. They went on a 7-0 run maybe. I walked in, just said we got to settle down. Like, it just seemed to me that guys were uptight, guys were not playing like we'd been used to them playing. We had some really dumb, careless turnovers.

I didn't want to put any extra added pressure. I felt like they already put way too much pressure on themselves to begin with. With some of our guys that typically play well, that weren't playing well. We just needed to settle down, lock in, control the stuff we can control.

The effort stuff is stuff we can't control, but I told them we weren't giving our defense a chance to win the game for us when we turn the ball over 10 times. Even at the end there when we gave up the 7-0 run at the half, they hit the three off the turnover. I think we had a couple turnovers. I just told them to settle in, take care of the ball, no more iffy home run plays. We tried to tell them at the beginning of the game. Reiterated it again at halftime. I think we did a much better job there in the second half.

I know we had four in the second half. I think we had two in the first 4 minutes. The last 16 minutes of the second half, we only had two turnovers. That's when we settled in, took care of the ball. Offense turned up a little bit.

Defense too in the last 10 minutes of the game, I think they scored a total of nine points. They had 46 I believe with just under 10 to go, finished with nine, kind of the middle -- we kind of opened the game up there, it was a two-point game, then we stretched it up to I think 12 maybe. We were down two, then an 18-4 run. I thought Reese was huge in that run. He had the two threes. Juwan Gary was big there too.

Q. What is the message to John Petty? He was struggling a little bit to shoot out there.

NATE OATS: No, I mean, he's just got to settle down and quit putting pressure on himself. I mean, I thought he played really hard. He won the hardhat award. He had more blue-collar points than anybody. He was all over the glass. He led us in rebounding with seven. He wants to win at a high level.

He did a great job on Gist, when we needed him to come in and guard Gist. He's a really talented, skilled offensive player. Just let the offense come.

I don't know what the deal was at the free-throw line. He's a lot better shooter than that, even from threes, one for five. I thought he shied away from maybe -- he wasn't -- did he take a three in the second half? Was he one for five at the half maybe?

He was aggressive, got downhill, got some easy ones, got out in transition off some stops. Probably one of his worst shooting games when you take threes and free throws together. He still ended up with double-digit points. Played really hard, did what we needed to to win. Let's move on to the next game. He'll play a lot better in the next game.

Q. Herb said he would have given the grade for this win a C. As a former teacher, is that where it would be on your scale?

NATE OATS: What did Herb say he'd give the grade?

Q. He said C.

NATE OATS: He's genius (laughter). C means average. It's definitely not our average. Again, Iona came with a great plan, did a good job.

Look, defensively give us a B; offensively we're probably a D. Maybe put the two of them together, maybe call it a C. Defensively in the second half we were pretty close -- we were really good. What was our second half defense? It was pretty good. I thought I got our analytics box score now. We were .79 in the second half before they called it analytically final there with a minute 14 to go.

I thought defensively that's pretty good. A-minus, B-plus on defense. Offense we were not very good.

Q. You mentioned about defense and how well you played defensively. But that rush there under 10, especially the couple of steals, that turned into transition buckets, how big was that in terms of gaining momentum under 10 to go?

NATE OATS: I mean, it won the game, to be honest with you. We needed to break the thing open. You think about the steal. When Petty had the one and Juwan had the one, Juwan goes to the line, goes 2-2 at the line. It was big.

I thought Juwan was great tonight. He's been great for us. Herb got the steal and the dunk. Herb, Petty, Juwan made big defensive plays. Just we need everybody to really step up that way.

That's what we tried to tell these guys coming in. Like, you get yourself some easy buckets by getting some run-outs off stops, getting the offensive boards. That's what Petty did. Petty hit the one three. He had double-digit points. Our second-leading scorer had 11, Quinerly. Petty and Shack both had 10 each.

This was not one of our better offensive displays. Petty is our third leading scorer with ten, and he didn't play very good at all. But he went and got some easy buckets, some transition buckets off steals, O board putbacks, he had two offensive boards. He found a way to help us win.

I think all of our guys really just kind of found a way to break that thing open in the second half, running off our stops.

Q. I wanted to ask you about the bench as a whole. Reese sacrificed a lot for this team. He made two huge threes, played good defense on Junior Joseph in the second half. Juwan made big-time plays defensively. Quinerly had the huge drive and layup to keep the lead at nine about a minute to go.

NATE OATS: Yeah, the bench was great. Juwan, Reese and JQ scored 23 points between the three of them. It was big. Quinerly has been used to scoring at a high level. Quinerly is essentially a starter, but we bring him off the bench. We need to keep him out of foul trouble. He's playing more than 21 minutes for us.

I thought the contributions Juwan gave us were huge, as they've been. The two threes that Reese hit were, like, game-opening threes. I couldn't be happier for a kid. I think he's just had a great attitude all year. I thought he was great defensively tonight for us. I couldn't be happier for Reese.

Look, I'm looking right now. We have the defensive analysis. As a team, we were at a .82 tonight. Reese was a .74 when he was in the game. We were much better defensively when Reese was in the game than when he wasn't.

You look at our bench guys, those three guys we're talking about. Offense turns into defense. Quinerly was a .65 on D, Juwan Gary was a .68 and Reese was a .74. All of those guys we were better defensively when they were in the game. That defense turns into offense, which was the case.

We need to get our starting group to be a lot better defensively than what we need them to be or than what they were tonight. I thought those guys were great off the bench tonight.

Q. How has Herbert Jones impacted your program the past two seasons?

NATE OATS: Herb is kind of the lifeline, to be honest with you. He and Petty are our two senior leaders. He's the SEC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year. It's happened three times in the history of the SEC. That speaks to the respect he's got from the media and the coaches in the SEC.

He does all the little stuff we need him to do. He did all the little stuff last year. He had his left hand in a cast, pulls down 17 rebounds in a big win against LSU. He just shows up to work every day, shows up to play hard. He shows up and makes winning plays every day.

Now in this game, biggest game of essentially these guys' careers, we put ourselves in a great spot with a 2 seed to come out and make a run. We're struggling, and he puts us on his back, kind of carries us. He has 20-6 tonight. When he got to the rim, he's the only guy that went 100% at the free-throw line. He goes four for four. I thought he was really locked in.

His leadership has been great. The culture has changed a lot in the two years we've been there. He's been at the heart of that culture change. You can't sing his praises enough.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, congratulations. Best of luck in the next round. Thanks for joining us.

NATE OATS: Thanks.