The Alabama men’s basketball team is fresh off its round of 32 victory over Grand Canyon and will now shift its focus to the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Sweet 16.
On Monday night as the Crimson Tide continued its preparation, head coach [autotag]Nate Oats[/autotag] made his weekly appearance on the radio show “Hey Coach” and went into detail on what he considered would give the Tide the best shot of upsetting the Tar Heels.
After the Crimson Tide’s strong defensive performance against GCU, Coach Oats pointed to playing a more balanced game against North Carolina could go a long way in helping the Tide advance to the Elite Eight.
“We’re playing our best defense of the year at the right time, and I think if we can get our offense back to being the No. 1 offense in the country, we’ve got a pretty good shot to beat these guys,” said Oats.
The Tide head coach would go on to say that the offense has not been where it needs to be throughout the tournament.
“We really haven’t played a very good offensive game — we looked good against Charleston, decent, but kind of let our foot off the gas — and we didn’t play well at all against Grand Canyon on offense.”
Oats would also mention that he wants to let his player rest a bit before trying to make another run at this weekend in Los Angeles.
“We’ll do our best over these next four days to get the guys’ legs back under them. We’re not gonna practice [Tuesday]. We’re gonna try to get their confidence back with their shooting. We’re trying to get the No. 1 offense in the country back while maintaining — I saw somewhere we had the 38th-best defense in the last week. If we didn’t take our foot off the gas against Charleston like we did when we got up 31, I think it would be closer to top 20.
“So if you could combine a top-20 defense and the No. 1 offense, you’ve got a chance to make a Final Four run.”
Alabama certainly has what it takes to take down North Carolina on Thursday. Let’s see if Oats and the Tide can execute and advance to the program’s second-ever Elite Eight.
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