Oats Explains How Tide Won OT War
You'll have to excuse Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats if he looked like he'd just been through a war after his No. 13 Tide's 98-93 overtime win over No. 24 Florida..
He had.
And somehow, his team won that war to maintain its hold on first place in the SEC.
Here's what Oats had to say postgame:
Opening Statement
"That was a wild game. Still not quite sure how we figured out how to win it.
"I thought we figured it out. We needed Sam to hit the threes he hit. Aaron almost had a triple double.
"If you're going to win a league championship, these are the games you've got to figure out ways to win.
"I thought this was Sears' best game defensively.
'We figured out ways to win this game, but we didn't play well.
"I give Florida a to of credit. They came in with a great game plan.
"Hopefully we get Wrightsell back quick. He's got a head injury and is being evaluated on a day-to-day basis."
On learning from this win
"We didn't shoot well and we still figured out ways to win. We can look back and reference that. Down ten with eight minutes left and figured out a way to get enough stops. We can reference these comebacks we've had.
"I though the Georgia win helped us in the huddles tonight."
On Rebounding
"Grant was trying to box out. They had some size on him. We had 21 O boards. They had 17. Rylan and Aaron had nine combined O boards.
"Sears had seven defensive rebounds. That was huge."
On Sam Walters
"You have to hunt good threes. We all know Sam's not going to pass up many threes I thought Sam was big on defense, too. Sam's been getting better for us on defense. It was good he was two-way guy tonight. He made half our threes tonight with four."
On Grant Nelson
"Him playing more five has helped him. He's got a knack for driving on fives. The six blocks he had... the and-one finish he had. I thought this was the best two-way game he's played. Best I've seen him since he's been here."
On Nick Pringle
"Nick's as good an energy guy as we've had. When his energy's positive he's unbelievable. Guys feed off it. That's how I envision him playing. Even on the bench, he's great coaching guys up."
On Chris Stewart taking over football play-by-play
"I found that out today. I congratulated him. I've got a great friendship with Chris. Super happy for him. Play-by-play with Alabama football is a pretty big deal. There's something about Chris' voice He's done it for football and he's going to be good."
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