{"id":72754,"date":"2024-10-15T16:36:44","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T21:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/nate-oats-alabama-players-address-challenge-of-managing-minutes-with-deep-roster\/"},"modified":"2024-10-15T16:36:44","modified_gmt":"2024-10-15T21:36:44","slug":"nate-oats-alabama-players-address-challenge-of-managing-minutes-with-deep-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/nate-oats-alabama-players-address-challenge-of-managing-minutes-with-deep-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Nate Oats, Alabama players address challenge of managing minutes with deep roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. \u2014<\/strong> Alabama head coach Nate Oats<\/a><\/strong> has already made the claim himself that this the deepest basketball team he\u2019s ever had. <\/p>\n

They haven\u2019t taken the court yet, but on paper, there\u2019s a lot of validity to that claim. Alabama has brought in the No. 2 overall recruiting class alongside a very strong transfer portal class, on top of returning multiple starters from last year\u2019s Final Four team, and preseason SEC player of the year Mark Sears<\/a><\/strong> as the cherry on top.<\/p>\n

The Crimson Tide truly has 13 scholarship players that can fight for minutes. With that comes the great challenge of how to distribute those minutes. Who will start? Who will play more? Who will play less? All difficult questions to answer with so many capable players on the roster.<\/p>\n

The reality is that with such a deep team, a lot of players won\u2019t receive the minutes they necessarily want, or even that they deserve. Oats has been up front with the team about that throughout the offseason, telling them minutes will be greatly decided by what they do on the court.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s talked about it a lot. We understand that it might not be the same amount of minutes we want, but we have to play hard for the increments we\u2019re in. He talked about how we get 4-minute increments, and if we\u2019re not playing hard for those 4-minute increments then they\u2019ll decrease,\u201d Alabama guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr.<\/a><\/strong> said. \u201cWe have to step up our game. Minutes aren\u2019t guaranteed. The minutes are gonna be tight, but competing every day in practice, that\u2019s what makes it real fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Wrightsell said, the depth on the roster makes the competition level in practice heightened that much more. Alabama is already known for having difficult practices under Oats, but with this much talent on the floor now, the intensity has taken itself to another level.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery day is like an SEC Tournament game,\u201d Sears said. \u201cThat\u2019s how it feels. We\u2019re competing, going at each other, trying to make each other better as well. We feel like iron sharpens iron, so we\u2019re definitely getting better. We\u2019re just focused on the effort plays and the blue-collar mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Alabama backcourt specifically has a boatload of challengers for minutes.<\/p>\n

Sears and Wrightsell are the presumed starting backcourt, as both were major players on last season\u2019s team, but there are three extremely talented newcomers in the fold as well. USF transfer Chris Youngblood<\/a><\/strong> was set to be a primary contributor, but an ankle injury will keep him out until December.<\/p>\n

That leaves Auburn transfer Aden Holloway<\/a><\/strong>, a sophomore and former 5-star recruit, and freshman Labaron Philon<\/a><\/strong>, a freshman and former 4-star recruit, who have brought the challenge to Sears and Wrightsell continually throughout the offseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cAden has brought a lot of energy, same as Labaron. I really look at them two as guys that can have really good production off the bench, or wherever they come off as Oats sets the lineup,\u201d Wrightsell said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t really matter. Really what matters is the energy they come in with every single day. They push me and Mark every day. They have great ability to shoot, to defend, to guard and they love the game. We\u2019re in their playing 1s with us four guards every day. It\u2019s been really fun since they came.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it comes to Oats\u2019 philosophy for how he\u2019s going to handle who plays more and who plays less, it\u2019s going to come down to who\u2019s performing better on the floor. Not who\u2019s scoring more points when they\u2019re on the floor, but who\u2019s impacting winning the most.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe keep telling them it\u2019s not about points, this and that. It\u2019s about what you do on the floor. So like, is our offensive efficiency better with you on the floor, is our defensive efficiency better with you on the floor,\u201d Oats said. \u201cWe\u2019re gonna try to reward effort, reward winning plays. There\u2019s going to have to be some sacrifices made to win a championship. There\u2019s some guys that even last year were big parts of what we\u2019re doing that will have to take fewer minutes this year to build our depth. It\u2019s more about what you do with your minutes than how many minutes you play.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s perhaps no better example of that mentality than sophomore Mo Dioubate<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As a freshman last year, Dioubate played sparingly, averaging less than eight minutes per game and 2.9 points when he did get to play. Despite his lack of playing time, Dioubate\u2019s number was called in the second round of the NCAA Tournament against Grand Canyon, when Alabama was trailing late in the game to the 12-seed and at risk of being sent home early.<\/p>\n

Dioubate entered the game and affected it on both ends of the floor, scoring nine points and helping Alabama get the win. Sears mentioned Dioubate specifically when asked about the minutes distribution, referencing his game against Grand Canyon as something the team regularly points to.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout him, we don\u2019t go to the Final Four,\u201d Sears said. \u201cWe just use that as a perfect example, you\u2019ve got to be ready when your time is called.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last season, Alabama embraced the concept of \u201cMudita,\u201d which means vicarious joy through someone else\u2019s success. It was the team\u2019s motto, so much so that it\u2019s engraved on the team\u2019s Final Four rings. <\/p>\n

With how many players are capable of playing this season, that\u2019s once again going to have to be the mindset. If the team properly embraces it, the sky is the limit for what this team can accomplish.<\/p>\n

The post Nate Oats, Alabama players address challenge of managing minutes with deep roster<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MOUNTAIN BROOK, Ala. \u2014 Alabama head coach Nate Oats has already made the claim himself…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72754\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}