Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats met with the media over Zoom on Friday afternoon before the Crimson Tide travel to Knoxville to face No. 6 Tennessee.
Oats discussed plenty about Tennessee including Zakai Zeigler and Dalton Knecht and also touched on the status of a number of banged up Alabama players. Here’s what Oats said about the Vols.
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Opening Statement
“It’s a big stretch here for us with Tennessee and Auburn back to back. I mean, those are two of the top teams in the SEC. If we’re going to have any chance to win the SEC, we’ve got to play well here in these two games. It’s not easy to win at Tennessee. I think they’ve only lost five times at home in the last four years, so it’s a tough place to play. They’re a very good team, one of the best teams in the country, and we’re both playing for a conference championship. They got one (SEC) loss and we don’t have a loss. And Auburn is undefeated as well, so we’re going to have to play well.
“(Tennessee does) a good job turning people over. They’re super physical. We didn’t handle it well up there last year. We only had two losses in league last year and this was one of the two, (it) was up there. So it’s our guys and we’ve had an issue with turnovers, so we’ve got to do a good job taking care of the ball, a lot better than what we have in the past. And we’re going have to obviously guard all and (Dalton) Knecht, I mean, he’s put on quite a show here these last three games. He’s had three straight games over 28 (points), which is scoring at a high level. And back to back 35-point games, or 35-plus.
“So the issue is if you focus your entire defense on him, they’ve got other really good players. I mean, (Santiago) Vescovi, he’s one of the best guards in the league. He’s been here. (Zakai) Zeigler is one of the best guards in the league, he’s been there. (Jonas) Aidoo can score it. (Josiah-Jordan) James is playing well. They’ve got multiple guys that can score it. So it’s hard to just completely focus on Dalton, but you’ve got to focus on him because he is scoring the ball at the high clip right now.”
On how Alabama’s Mark Sears is dealing with what Oats described as a “tweaked” ankle
“You know what, he’s been able to fully practice these last two days. He is not a hundred percent, but we haven’t held him out of anything in practice. So it’s progressing every day. So hopefully he is better tomorrow than he was today, but he’s the leading scorer in the SEC so we’re going to play him if he’s anywhere close to a hundred percent.”
On Tennessee’s Zakai Zeigler having one of the best assist rates in college basketball
“(He’s) so fast. He gets in the paint so frequently. And when he gets in there, he draws a crowd and then he’s unselfish and makes the right reads and kicks it out or drops it off. He has been causing defenses in this league problems since he got there as a freshman, so it’s no surprise that he is at the top this year. But we got to do a good job trying to keep the ball out of the lane with him. He’s just, I mean, he’s a little water bug. He’s quick. He gets it and he goes in transition. He’s made them a lot faster team since he’s gotten there. And they put shooting around him and makes it even better for him with the way that they’ve been able to space the floor a little bit more with their shooting now.”
On what impresses him about Dalton Knecht:
“Dalton, shoot, he’s got size, he’s athletic, he shoots it really well, so you gotta be right there on the catch, otherwise he’s getting it off. He gets his shot off quick and can shoot over the top of smaller guards and they’ve done a good job. I mean, they’re playing a little bit — there’s some similar stuff on offense, but they’re playing to Dalton’s strengths a little bit and he’s coming off some of those wide-pins and some floppies and they’re putting him in ball screens where he’s handling the ball screens with his size. So they’re using him in a lot of different ways and they even post him a little bit because he’s got size and teams would want to guard him with a guard the way he shoots it. But if you’re 6-foot-7, do you want to switch? Do you want to put your small guards on him? They put you in a quandary. I think Coach Barnes has done a really good job utilizing what Dalton does well.”
On how he’s seen Jonas Aidoo develop over the last three seasons
“He’s just progressively gotten better every year. I mean, he looks like he’s more athletic, moves better. He’s able to knock down, you know, kind of that mid-range shot while he’s also, you know, can score in the post, he deep seals you. His passing’s improved. He helps him a lot and he’s big. He’s got real size in there. They’re one of the few teams in the country that are really good on offense and defense. We gotta get our defense better and they’re number two in the country in defense. And if they’re not top 20 in offense, they’re borderline top 20 in offense and he’s a big part of both of that, you know, particularly on defense. He kinda anchors the whole deal back there. And then on offense, he’s gotten a lot better and he’s playing well for them.”
On how junior forward Mohamed Wague is progressing with his injury:
“With the injury, he can’t really practice. We’re trying to save him for games, so he hasn’t practiced much. It’s a little bit harder when you can’t practice to be in sync with everybody else for the games. But you know, he’s kind of available as front court depth when we need it. You know he’s gonna play hard, just he’s got this injury that we’re kind of have to deal with the rest of the year.”
