Tag: NCAA hoops

What Nate Oats said following Alabama’s 68-67 win over Arkansas

Nate Oats had some comments following the Tide’s 68-67 win over Arkansas.

Nate Oats had the expression on his face that many of us recognize as painful contempt. The look said it all. Sure, his Alabama basketball team came away with the crunch-time win, but it wasn’t pretty no matter how you scratch it.

The Crimson Tide turned the ball over a whopping 24 times. You read that right if I wrote it right. 24 turnovers AND a W? That’s a rarity in college basketball.

Nonetheless, despite the turnovers, Alabama managed to earn conference win number six in the 68-67 home win over Arkansas.

The SEC Now crew caught up with Oats after the final buzzer and he didn’t seem pleased, despite the W column increasing in size by one.

He began by commending Arkansas’ effort and credited them for the Tide’s superfluity of turnovers.

“We didn’t take care of the ball well enough. We had too many turnovers and gave up too many O boards, a lot of that due to how hard Arkansas plays,” Oats said, “They went to the offensive boards hard, they pressured us into turning it over some.”

 

“But I think guys showed a lot of resolve. We got down after being up 13, and Noah (Gurley) scored two go-ahead buckets. Noah was huge for us late in the game. He didn’t shoot the three particularly well tonight, but he did a great job finishing at the rim. I think he played really hard. I was really happy for him.”

Oats went on to discuss the significance of the win and areas of concern to cover in practice.

“We’ve got plenty of stuff to improve on,” Oats remarked, “but that was a big win. That was the hottest team in the SEC. They’d won nine straight. They were playing great basketball.”

To close, Oats said “Defensively, our first-shot defense was great. We’ve gotta do a better job rebounding, though. We’re gonna have to do a better job on Wednesday (at Mississippi State). We had issues with them before.”

Stay tuned to Roll Tide Wire for all the latest on the Crimson Tide!

Contact/Follow us @RollTideWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Alabama news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Layne Gerbig on Twitter @LayneG_29.

Notre Dame and Kentucky to Renew Hardwood Rivalry

Notre Dame will have one of college basketball’s biggest names on it’s out of conference schedule the next three seasons.

Notre Dame and Kentucky have met in basketball 62 times over the years, the most recently being a thriller that sent the Wildcats to the Final Four in the 2015 Midwest Regional Final.

Now Notre Dame and Kentucky will meet again on the hardwood as a three game series between the teams has officially been announced with action starting this year at Rupp Arena in Lexington.

Notre Dame will travel to Kentucky on December 12 of this year while a neutral site game will be played in 2021 and the Wildcats will play in South Bend on December 10, 2022.

“It is great to renew a series between two of the ‘blue bloods’ of college basketball,” Men’s Basketball Coach Mike Brey said. 

“If our recent battles with Kentucky are any indication, these games should be appointment viewing for college basketball fans.” 

Kentucky was won 43 of the 62 all-time meetings with Notre Dame.

Happy Anniversary (x 2), Notre Dame Women’s Basketball

April 1 is a rather important day in the history of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball – Celebrate it here!

2019-20 didn’t bring a season that Notre Dame Women’s Basketball fans would have hoped for.  Had there been a March Madness they wouldn’t have qualified for the first time since the 1993-94 season that saw them finish in the third round of the Women’s NIT.

However, April 1 is a rather important day in the history of Notre Dame Women’s Basketball because on it 19 years ago this evening, the 2000-01 squad beat Purdue for the second time that season and clinched their first national championship in program history as Ruth Riley saved her best moment for her last, leading all scorers with 28 points that included a pair of free throws to give the Irish the lead with five seconds left.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoxQTAIncS0&w=560&h=315]

17 years to the day later things came down to the final seconds again with Notre Dame battling Mississippi State and actually trailing by five points with under 100 seconds to play.

Enter Arike Ogunbowale and as big of shot as there has ever been in March Madness.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEvhwtXACxY&w=560&h=315]

Two national championships exactly 17 years apart. It doesn’t get much better than that.

ACC Fines Notre Dame, Reprimands Brey After Rant

Everyone knows the officials screwed up. Why can’t that part at least be admitted or acknowledged?

Good morning and happy Monday. If you missed it over the weekend Mike Brey was none too pleased over how Saturday night’s loss at Florida State was officiated.

The Fighting Irish lost a close one in Tallahassee and now the university has to pay for Brey’s outburst.

In a statement released by the Atlantic Coast Conference Monday morning the following has been handed down:

-The ACC issues a public reprimand of Brey for his comments because he violated the ACC sportsmanship policy.

-The league also handed Notre Dame a $20,000 fine for the violation.

-The ACC also considers this matter closed and will have no further comment.

Listen, Notre Dame got to the free throw line more than Florida State did Saturday. I don’t think any official went in with the idea of fixing things to make sure an upset was avoided.

The thing that bothers me the most isn’t as much an ACC problem as it is a sports problem. Officials clearly messed up like they do in any league or level of play and anyone with a functioning pair of eyes could see it. Yet when no comment is made about Brey in this instance having a point, it feels like complete propaganda.

You and I watch that showing by the officials and know it was awful. Joe in accounting who doesn’t watch basketball even knows the officials were brutal. So what then would the harm be in at least releasing something in that statement that read along the lines of “The ACC is reviewing the officials performance from Saturday’s game”?

Everyone knows the officials screwed up. Why can’t that part at least be admitted or acknowledged? I say that in regards to strictly officiating, not in Brey’s comments about the league having it out for Notre Dame.

I think I speak for most college basketball observers when I say that officiating in the game is awful. I don’t like to play the blame game but I do feel like just flipping on a random Big Ten game in the middle of the week will give multiple occurrences where you ask yourself “what the heck was that?” in regards to a call.

Why can’t that at least be acknowledged instead of sports organizations pushing their propaganda? Instead it comes off to me as treating viewers and fans as if they’re stupid.