PLAYERS ERA POWER COLLEGE BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT

November 27, 2024

Nate Oats

Jarin Stevenson

Derrion Reid

MGM Grand Garden Arena

Alabama Crimson Tide

Postgame Press Conference

Alabama - 95, Rutgers - 90

NATE OATS: That's a good team. We played our best. You've got to give them a lot of credit. They came out ready to play. I'm not so sure we did. It became a game.

Dylan Harper is really talented. And Ace Bailey, super talented. First half didn't have an answer for them. These two guys next to me were the two best defenders for Ace for sure with the size on him. We got in foul trouble. Jarin had two early. Derrion got in foul trouble. We didn't have good answers for him.

And we had no answer at all for Dylan Harper the entire game. We've got to figure our defense out. We're not where we need to be defensively. Really disappointed in it, but they're talented too. Those guys are going to cause some problems with other teams. But we've got to do a better job.

Our turnovers were a major issue. They scored 23 points off our 20 turnovers. That's way too many for having a skilled, talented team that's supposed to be a good offensive team. We didn't take care of the ball well tonight.

Give the team a lot of credit for physicality. They got into us. They caused turnovers. They're a well coached team. They're physical. They know what they're doing.

We were in a dogfight. And we were fortunate that we got enough stops late. And we went to the offensive glass hard enough. We doubled them up on second-chance points 18-9. That's where we won the game.

And Mo Dioubate ends up with five O boards and our team ends up with 16. Nobody else had more than two. It was Mo and then it was counted by group effort there. Kind of the second game in a row where we won on toughness and rebounding.

We'll get our offense figured out. We're (indiscernible) going to stop turning the ball over 20 times. We'll get our defense figured out. And hopefully we'll keep the rebounding up at the level it's been the last two games.

Q. You have some really talented freshmen. What's your assessment of both Dylan and Ace compared to maybe what you expected coming into this game?

NATE OATS: We've had a couple ourselves, and these guys are up there. I mean, Ace, maybe the best mid-range shot-maker I've seen. He just kind of rises up over guys, the floaters with the touch. You know, he's tough. We didn't do a great job. We needed more size on him.

I thought Derrion did a pretty good job on him. He's a guy that if you don't have size on him he's shooting over 6'2", 6'3", 6'4" guards. He's going to cause some problems. We thought that going in. And Derrion has got to stay out of foul trouble because he's turning into an elite defender for us.

And then Dylan, he gets to the rim pretty much whenever he wants. We didn't have anybody that can stay in front of him. And ball screens, we didn't do a very good job. He's got some force, some physicality, some strength coming downhill. So if you are in your drop, he comes downhill with some force and puts pressure on it at the rim.

They didn't take very many the 3s. I think Ace was 1-for-3 and Dylan 0-for-3. They didn't take a lot, but Dylan got to the rim whenever he wanted. And he also got to the free-throw line and creates contact with his size. And he makes them. Shoot, elite-level scorers make their free throws. He's 15-of-16 at the line.

Those two are really good they'll both be high draft picks I'm sure. You know, I thought Dylan really commanded the game in the second half and really kept them in there most of the second half.

Q. You guys fall behind five in the first half. The bench outscores their bench 15-5. And in second half your bench outscored them 23-1. How much of an emphasis do you feel in terms of the reserves needing to be play a big role on this team?

DERRION REID: I feel like with our team, it's next man up mentality. Whether you're starting, it doesn't matter. Just be ready for when you're called up, when it's your time to step up and guard the player whoever's in front of you.

JARIN STEVENSON: I just feel like they was bringing energy on the bench. And the starters also just help and instill confidence in our bench. Just coming out for the game they talked us up and just hyped us up. Just feel like, yeah, as a team we're just good at that.

Q. This is one of the best offensive teams in America that you have, but you've had a couple of these scoring droughts in multiple games. What's the solution to that?

NATE OATS: One, we've got to take care of the ball. It's hard to score when you turn it over. So turnovers is the biggest issue. Second thing is when we're not playing fast and teams turn us into a half court team we've got to be able to execute some things, set screens, learn how to create advantages.

Sometimes we spend a lot of time on teaching our guys conceptual basketball, how to play the flow, how to attack different coverages in the flow. We've got to do a better job working on our execution, some dead balls or if we feel like we're in drought we need to be able to call sets. We haven't done a job executing stuff that we've run.

So, it's like some of our guys that are tough guys that are impacting winning in a lot of other ways aren't necessarily great execution guys. Some are better execution guys. And to get better on defense, rebounding, impacting the game that way.

So right now you know we've got to do better on both. We've got to get the tough, blue-collar guys better at executing some stuff and getting some of our shooters open. And then we gotta get some of the other guys that are our scorers a little bit more blue-collar and impacting winning in other ways other than scoring so that we can maybe (indiscernible) a little bit more than we are now.

Q. Derrion and Jarin, you guys have played one of the toughest schedules to start in the first month here. Several ranked teams. Rutgers was just 25th last week. As critical as coaches being right now, are you taking positives and learning lessons from what you've done against very tough opponents?

DERRION REID: Yes, I feel like we learn more every game. Just we're seeing different coverages, different ways they guard us. We learn more stuff on offense on how we can get better every game. And he stacked our schedule for a reason. He had trust in us. So we just gotta accept the call.

JARIN STEVENSON: Yeah, earlier in the season I feel like our team wasn't doing the best in the under-12, when there's 12 minutes left in the game. I feel like we've been better, we've been learning from that. Those tougher opponents early on in the season help teach us to be strong and mentally tough and continue fighting throughout the entire game.

Q. A lot of people maybe overlooked Mo in the preseason. Impact he's made the last two games, what does he bring to your team?

NATE OATS: He's kind of what we try to embody in the blue-collar mentality we preach. We obviously play (indiscernible), score a lot of points. But to try to build the base of what we do around blue-collar mentality. And he's been the best at it.

And we grade out blue-collar points for (indiscernible). He's won the hard hat the last two games, a ridiculous amount to be honest with you. He's making bets with his teammates as to whether he's going to win it. Most of them would be smart not to bet him anymore because he's going to win it about every night.

He hits the offensive board, he gets offensive board from the free-throw line. He gets them everywhere. He's finishing at the rim. Shooting 6-for-6 at the free-throw line. I tell the guys when you're locked in, you're locked in. I think he's locked in to making winning plays.

When you're locked in, you just go to the free-throw line, you step up and make the free throws. He's a guy that struggled at the free-throw line a little bit. But he's been really locked in to what we need to win. He's just making big plays.

Had a couple of big blocks, I think three big blocks yesterday, two big blocks tonight. He's just looking to, where can I make an impact. Should have another block. They called a foul on somebody else, tonight that he ended up blocking over the top.

He's figuring out ways to impact winning outside of just scoring the basketball. And then he ends up scoring it because he finds ways to get to the rim. Gets some dunks, gets tough buckets at the rim.

I think three games ago he took more 3s than he had rebounds. We told him it's not a recipe for you playing. And we said I can't have -- I don't mind if he shoots a wide open catch and shoot 3s. He's been working on his shot. He's got to really focus on the stuff that he's great at -- offensive rebounding, defensive rebounding, getting stops, making blocks, deflections. The steal he had when we blitzed them in the ball screen was a big play because we weren't getting stops. We went to where we had to blitz them.

First time we had to try to blitz Dylan, the ball screen, he makes a big play, making a read on the backside.

He makes big plays. He's tough. He's got the best attitude. Even when he doesn't play very many minutes, the best teammate ever. He's a guy that, as a head coach, you want to find more minutes for him because his attitude has been so great ever since he's been here. He's helping us win games right now. I'd be stupid not to find him more minutes the way he's playing.

Q. How much do you think Youngblood will help you when you do get him back defensively, and would you have had him on Dylan tonight?

NATE OATS: I would sure hope so. He's big, strong, tough. He's got the right mindset. He's all about winning.

Is he quick enough to stay in front of the guy? We'll see. But mentally he's going to want to. He's not going to be happy if he's getting beat.

I mean, he's one of the most competitive kids I've ever coached in my life. There's a reason he was player of the year in a really good league last year.

And he can make shots. He doesn't turn the ball over. We've got to quit turning the ball over. Our guards have to quit turning the ball over. We've got to get some guys that play two ways, defense and offense, and on offense take care of the ball and not turn it over. I think he can be that for us. So hopefully his recovery comes quick and we get him back here pretty quick.

Q. What do you think is the right way to ball screen coverage against Dylan? You tried to blitz --

NATE OATS: I don't have a good answer on that one because, honestly, you drop, he comes down with some fours. You blitz him, I've seen other teams blitz him, and he actually makes all the right reads. He's a willing passer. He's an NBA point guard.

Probably the best way, to be honest with you, is switch him. And you have to have five guys in there that can actually guard him, because if you've got somebody that can't guard him, they're just going to run the switch.

So we had Sears with four fouls. Sears is a big deal. Our team, he goes out, I think they went on a 10-3 run, two and a half minutes. When he went out of the game, had to get him back in. As soon as he goes in, we go on a 7-0 run, try to hunt him on ball screens. Honestly, the best way is probably to switch him. But you have to have five guys in that can guard him in there that can switch him so I don't know how many college programs have five guys that can guard him that way.

Q. You played a lot of good teams this year already last year as well. How does Rutgers measure up against those teams and do you see them being a team that can compete at the highest level go deep in the tournament?

NATE OATS: The way they played tonight, they were one of the better teams in the country. They have two of the most talented players regardless of class, when you're talking about two talented freshmen -- freshman/senior, doesn't matter.

They have other guys that understand their role. They put some pressure on our defense. Our defense wasn't very good tonight. Based on what I saw tonight, they should be pretty good.

So I told our guys we're going to see a lot different team than what showed up at Kennesaw. They're young. I don't want to speak for them so I don't know what the deal was going into that game, but sometimes some younger kids have experienced playing, they need to understand that there's a lot of really good college basketball players at all levels.

I've told our team, we're going to see a much better team than that. And we did. This is a team that easily could have beat us tonight if a few things didn't go our way. We needed it too late.

I see them competing in the Big Ten. I think they're going to win some big games. I think the more experience those young guys can get early, the more tournament, sophomores, because they played so many minutes, the better off they're going to be here shortly.

A lot of respect for them. They do a good job. They played us tough. They put a lot of pressure on us. We have a lot to learn after that game. They exposed some stuff we've got to get better at.