Alabama basketball’s first-ever Final Four run came to an end on Saturday, with an 86-72 loss to UConn in the national semifinals. The Crimson Tide finished the season 25-12 with the defeat.
Here’s what UA head coach Nate Oats had to say during his postgame press conference. The transcript was provided by ASAP Sports, with questions edited for clarity.
Opening statement
“First, just want to thank our guys for getting this school to a Final Four for the first time in school history. We had an unbelievable run. Guys kind of got us over the hump to get there. So can’t say enough about the leadership of these guys, particularly in the last few weeks.
“Unfortunate that it ended tonight, but we played arguably the best team in the country. I mean, UConn is top five in offense and defense. It showed tonight. I thought our guys did a good job staying in there, not giving up big runs.
“After we tied it there in the second half, I think they went on an 8-0 run after that, I if remember that, it was pretty quick.
“They’re good. Like Danny says, they’re close to being bulletproof. When you’re that great on both sides of the ball, you out-rebound teams, the official box score had us down for zero fast break points. The first time all year that that’s happened to us. We’re used to getting out in transition. This game ended up being 64 possessions, which is a lot slower than we like. We kind of know they play a lot slower.
“They got out in transition on us a little bit. They hit a three in transition. They got that dunk early in the second half. We let it get away from us a little bit.
“UConn is great. It’s going to be a great matchup Monday night. Our guys were really good from this stretch in the NCAA tournament. We just came up a little short tonight, but we came up short against a great team.”
On message to fans after Alabama’s first Final Four run
“I want to thank ‘em. They’ve really supported us since we’ve gotten here. They’ve gotten behind this when I took the job. A lot of people said it was a football school. There’s a large contingent of basketball fans. No reason you can’t be both.
“Florida -- we’ll see if UConn wins it on Monday, if they go ahead and win it on the Monday, first team since Florida to win it back-to-backs. Florida is a pretty good football school. They became a pretty good basketball school. I think we proved you can be good at both.
“They’re good at a lot of sports at Alabama. I mean, they’ve been great to us since we’ve been here. I’m glad that I was a small part of bringing the Alabama fan base some joy through the basketball team and making the Final Four.
“But while it was great and I want to thank them and thank our players for getting us here, we’re not finished. We’d like to get back here and win this whole thing. I think that’s what our goal’s going to be. We’re going to aim to get back here, aim to get back here and win the final game.
“We just got to keep knocking at the door, ask for them to continue to support us like the way they’ve been, and we’ll continue to put a winning product on the floor for them”
On the Hurley family legacy
“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy when you say it like that. I didn’t even think about that. But, yeah, obviously Bobby is arguably the best point guard to ever play college basketball. Unbelievable leader. He led his team to back-to-back national championships. I learned a lot from him. Two years being an assistant... Competitive, fiery. His IQ as a point guard, the way he sees things.
“If Danny can go do it as a coach -- they obviously run a lot of basketball in that family. I was able to learn just a little bit of it from Bobby when I was with him for two years. I still talk to Danny and watch his teams frequently, watch Bobby’s teams frequently.
“Yeah, I mean, we’ve played both UConn and Purdue. Both really good. They both pose problems, but would be incredible if the same family had back-to-back championships a few years apart.”
On UConn’s pacing and how it impacted Alabama
We wanted the pace higher. Shoot, they kind of won out. 64 possessions is not ideal for us. They turn to speed them up, though. They don’t turn the ball over. They’re tough. They’re physical. Their sets take a long time to run. When you give up 12-0 boards, all of a sudden they take 20, 25 seconds off the clock, shoot, get a rebound, take another 15 seconds off the clock.
We had to do a lot better job on a lot of things. But they imposed their will on a lot of teams. In some regards, they imposed their will on us tonight, especially with the pace of play. Kept getting our guys to push a little bit faster. Seemed like there was always bodies in front of us. They did a great job in transition.
The only breakaway transition bucket was the one dunk they had. I don’t know that this official box score is exactly right, we’ll have to look at ours, because we did have some fast break points, the three in transition that Mark had, Grant Nelson got the dunk. To me that’s a transition bucket.
So we got a few transition opportunities, but not nearly like we’ve been used to, and not what we needed to beat a team like this. Obviously they do a great job keeping teams out of transition.
On whether he wanted Alabama to take more three-pointers
“We knew they were going to try to run us off, be physical. Pringle does a great job getting shooters freed up. We don’t really put him down in the paint, where Clingan can hang out in the paint. Clingan ended up with four blocks. We were trying to have Nick set more screens. Grant hit the one three. Would have been nicer if we could have got him a few more pick and pop threes, pulling clean out of the lane.
“Yeah, 23 is not ideal. We’d rather be pushing more like mid 30s on threes. But they were obviously going to try to take us off the line. When they took us off the line, we drove it in. They did a better job forcing us to take more non-rim twos than we probably have all year. We took 58 field goal attempts, two-point range, that weren’t at the rim. We were 5 of 17 on those. That’s not ideal. Almost a third of our shots ended up being non-rim twos. That’s not how we typically play.
“They’re a great defensive team. He’s a smart coach. They know the numbers like we do. That’s what they want teams to take. They forced us to take way too many of ‘em.”
On Grant Nelson’s future
“I’m sure his draft stock has risen in the tournament, particularly how he played against, was it Carolina where he had 24-12-5. He’s one of the four players in the history of the tournament to do that against a single-digit seed. I think it was him, Shaq, Tim Duncan and Channing Frye.
“This one, 19 and 15, his stock has risen. We’re going to have to sit down and evaluate how much it’s risen, will he get drafted, where will he get drafted.
“I’d love to have him back, I know that. I always said you do what’s right by the player, by the person. If he’s got a great situation, makes most sense for him not to come back, I’m all for it.
“Noah Clowney, nobody thought he’d be gone after one year, and ends up going 21st from the draft last year. If Grant’s stock rose enough to where it makes sense he leaves, I’ll be the happiest guy in the world for him. If he needs another year of college, I’ll welcome him back with open arms. I’d love to welcome him back for another year. We’ll have to figure that out in the next month or two, however long it takes to figure that out.”
See more Final Four coverage from AL.com
- Casagrande: Alabama never got punked by UConn, but felt gap between good and great
- Everything Dan Hurley said after UConn beat Alabama in the Final Four
- Goodman: Historic run for Alabama signals greatness ahead
- 3 takeaways from Alabama basketball’s Final Four loss to UConn
- Bruce Pearl in Final Four front row talks Alabama run, Mark Sears recruiting regret