Nate Oats was not happy with how Alabama performed during a dominant road win over South Carolina on Wednesday night. The 50-year-old college basketball coach sent a harsh message to his players during and after the 20-point victory.
He is not going to settle for anything less than perfection.
The Crimson Tide held a 45-28 lead over the Gamecocks at halftime. However, it gave up six quick points during the second half and four of those six points were scored at the rim. Nate Oats was furious. He benched all five of his starters after a turnover by Mark Sears and a foul by Jarin Stevenson. It was a move that was apparently long overdue.
That’s been building. We’ve had awful stats defensively in the second half […] I’d had enough of it.
— Nate Oats
To be fair, Alabama might be the deepest college basketball team in the country. Aden Holloway, Chris Youngblood, Derrion Reid, Mouhameed Dioubate and Aiden Sherrell could start at other programs and they are coming off of the bench. That does not mean they are exempt to criticism.
South Carolina guard Zachary Davis got out in front of the defense for an easy, runout dunk. The Crimson Tide defense fell asleep while the Gamecocks pushed the ball up court.
Oats immediately called a timeout to give Derrion Reid a piece of his mind. He charged onto the court to chew out his five-star freshman for not getting back. It was not subtle!
That’s a coach right there. Love Nate Oats passion pic.twitter.com/zO2yJ8npzz
— MattBeGreat (@mattbegreatyt) January 9, 2025
In addition to the earful, Reid was relegated back to the bench. Nate Oats subbed him out and kept him off of the floor for an extended period of time. He was not going to stand for more lazy defense even though his team was already up by more than 10 points. The score didn’t matter.
Fifth-ranked Alabama moved to 13-2 on the year with the win. Oats knows this team can be special and he expects them to play flawless basketball or get off of the court.