Alabama basketball is getting pretty good at beating North Carolina.
Nate Oats’ hot-shooting team had six players finish in double figures, and the Crimson Tide beat the Tar Heels, 94-79, in the SEC-ACC Challenge Wednesday night in Chapel Hill.
It was Alabama’s third straight victory since November 2022 against UNC, whom the Crimson Tide also beat in the Sweet 16 of last season’s NCAA Tournament. Unlike that late night back in March in Los Angeles, this one wasn’t close.
Alabama (7-2 overall) led 43-34 at halftime and used a 9-0 run shortly after intermission. The Crimson Tide led by as many as 18 in the final 10 minutes at the Dean Dome after Houston Mallette buried a 3-pointer to put Alabama ahead 70-52.
A transfer from Pepperdine, Mallette had planned to redshirt this season. That changed after Latrell Wrightsell’s season-ending Achilles’ injury last Saturday against Oregon.
Mark Sears led the Tide with 20 points against UNC (4-4). Alabama got 15 apiece from freshman Labaron Philon and Auburn transfer Aden Holloway, and Clifford Omoruyi and freshman Derrion Reed each had 11. Grant Nelson, who led Alabama’s Sweet 16 effort over the Tar Heels last season, finished with 10 points.
Nate Oats’ Opening Statement after 94-79 win over UNC
“I thought our guys showed a lot of toughness, resilience. We came off a tough loss against Oregon and easily could have let that loss turn into two, but I thought they got their minds right. Ready to play. I thought they executed the defensive game plan outside of transition buckets, which that’s what they (UNC) do best. We didn’t do a great job with it, particularly in the first half. Outside of that, in the half-court they struggled and I thought our guys did a really good job of executing the game plan.
“I was super happy for these two guys: Houston (Mallette), unselfish enough to come off of his redshirt and come in. We were plus 12 in his nine minutes, hit two 3’s, made some huge defensive plays, some rebounds, had a tip that kept an offensive rebound alive, and I think we got a dunk on that play. It was great. Jarin (Stevenson) kind of settled in and made some big 3’s for us. I thought he did a great job on RJ Davis, who’s not easy to guard. RJ is one of the best guards in the country and Jarin… just 19 years old, I thought he did an unbelievable job on RJ, as well as Houston and Derrion Reid. We tried to keep some size on Davis.
“He got his shots off, which we kind of knew. I think he averaged 22 field goal attempts in the two previous games we played them. We had 24 tonight, but we just wanted to make them as tough as we could. He hit some tough ones but I thought our guys — keeping some size on him, making him shoot very tough shots — I thought that was pretty good. Coach Adams did a really great job with the defensive game plan. For the most part, we took care of the ball, but late against the press and late in the first half, we weren’t good with it. But we did a better job of taking care of the ball over the course of probably the other 34-35 minutes.”
Nate Oats on Alabama’s defensive effort against North Carolina
Alabama held RJ Davis to 18 points on 7-of-24 shooting. Overall, the Tar Heels shot 41 percent from the field.
“Like I said, it was not good in transition, particularly in the first half. We had 24 transition possessions for them and they scored 29 of their points and go 1.21, and then when we had to go in a half-court, we had 39 points and 65 possessions for 0.6, which is… that’s like the best defense in the country type stuff in the half-court. The issue is, we gave up so many in transition, which is what they do best. We’ve just got to do a better job of getting back.
“I thought once we got our defense set, the shots that we were willing to give up is pretty much the shots that they took, and they were contested jumpers. I thought our bigs did a great job going vertical at the rim. You know, you take away the transition, the second chance, our first-shot half-court offense was elite tonight. So, we got to get all of it figured out. The transition has got to get better. The first shot was great and then we’ve got to be able to rebound the ball a little bit better.”
Nate Oats talks significance of SEC dominance in SEC-ACC Challenge
“It’s good for our league. I think we’ve got a really good basketball league. It was pretty good when I got here. Auburn was coming off a Final Four. Obviously you had great tradition. Kentucky looks great. I know they took the loss (to Clemson) last night, but they’ve done a great job so far this year. You’ve got talent across the league, so I think to play a really good league like the ACC that’s got all kinds of great tradition and to do it — what are in the challenge right now? … Whatever it is, it’s great. So, I think it’s obviously good because once you get in January, all you play is the SEC. So you need to establish yourself as an unbelievably great league in the nonconference because then when we’re playing all those teams, those games go a long ways.
“So even a tough loss on the road in the SEC is not really going to hurt you a lot in the committee’s eyes if your league is doing this well in the nonconference. So, great job by the league emphasizing basketball. Really good coaches in our league and some really good athletes. It’s tough, night in, night out. This is a great environment, but some other great environments in the SEC we’ve got to go into and win. So, it’s good that we’re able to go into an environment like this and get a win and some confidence playing in a tough road environment.”
Nate Oats updates Latrell Wrightsell after season-ending injury
“Yeah, I texted with him a little bit this afternoon. The surgery was successful. They repaired his Achilles. His parents are in town with him. Our guys talked about him in the locker room after the game. He’s a great kid, a really good leader and we’re gonna surround him with a lot of support and care while he recovers and wish him a speedy recovery.”
Nate Oats discusses the SEC’s rise in basketball
“It’s only my sixth year there, so the rise started before I got there but it’s climbed since I’ve gotten in there, as well. I think what the stuff you did mention, I do think the financial resources are a big deal. I think the league decided they want to be good in basketball. It doesn’t need to just be a football or baseball league. There’s a lot of good sports, and basketball being one of the more popular sports in college athletics, they just decided to put a big point emphasis on it.
“They hired a guy that’s just in charge of men’s basketball, Dan Leibovitz, I think was the first one. He’s now at the Big East, and Garth Glissman has been unbelievable since he got there. So, I think there’s an emphasis on it by the administrations, by the league as a whole. I think putting the resources that they need to, going out and hiring great coaches that are able to recruit great talent. We’ve got more NBA players I believe than any other league and typically have more NBA players in pretty much every draft. So, got athletes with great coaches and if you’re not on your A-game as a coach, you’re not going to win. So I think it’s just raised.
“I walked in the league and our big rival was Auburn and they were coming off a Final Four. I got hired and then they made the Final Four a week after I got hired, so we had to try to match them. It took us five years. We finally got there. We got our Final Four, but you’ve got to go down the list… Tennessee and Rick Barnes is one of the best coaches in all of college basketball for a long time. (John) Calipari has done an unbelievable job at Kentucky. Now, he’s got an unbelievable roster at Arkansas. Kentucky, Auburn, just keep going down the list, and some of them were very dominating wins (Tuesday) night. I thought Ole Miss had a really good win (86-63 over Louisville). It was good for our league. So, I’m just glad we were able to help our league out because we didn’t help the league out last year with our SEC-ACC Challenge game.”
Nate Oats on whether he saw improvement in Alabama’s spacing on offense
“Way better. The turnovers came on some carelessness and then against the press, so the half-court spacing was significantly better. I thought we got guys better shots. You look and we were able to hit 12 3’s, which we’d still like to get more off. But we were able to take care of the ball better, space the floor and get some 3’s. We also had some assists on some cuts because the spacing was better. I thought it was significantly better tonight than it had been.”
Nate Oats explains Labaron Philon’s success in true road environments like North Carolina and Purdue
“You know what, he’s a competitor. He’s been practicing hard. You have to deserve to play well, and he deserves to play well. He brings it every day in practice. He’s been bringing it since he walked on court in June. He’s got the ultimate confidence, but you can’t just instill confidence in a kid. You have to earn that confidence. You earn it by playing hard in practice, working on your game. I think he’s earned the confidence. He’s earned the playing time and he’s earned the right to play well. And he steps into these games not scared at all, and he brings it on both ends of the floor and he’s played really well in big games for us.”
Nate Oats on Aden Holloway’s shots starting to fall and how big he’ll be in Latrell Wrightsell’s absence
“I thought it was great. Obviously he’s a little upset with himself at the turnovers. His shooting was unbelievable. I mean, I don’t want to say this is what we expected, to go 5-of-9 every game, but we’ve seen him shoot it like this in practice for a long time, so we know what he’s capable of shooting the ball. He’s been taking care of the ball. I think the press rattled him a little bit and he’s a little upset with himself, so we’ll get that figured out.
“But the shooting was huge because Wrightsell’s been our best shooter all year, so we need somebody to step up and make some 3’s. So, he hit five of our 12 3’s, and I thought the minutes he gave us were great. We’ll get him a little bit better on defense and better at taking care of the ball moving forward.”
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