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Nate Oats says rebounding is ‘concerning’ after struggles vs. Robert Morris
By Ethan Stone
Published:
Nate Oats and Alabama face Saint Mary’s on Sunday following a slight scare against 15-seed Robert Morris.
The Tide, by Oats’s own admission, will be in for a tough time against the Gaels. Like Robert Morris, Saint Mary’s has posted very strong offensive rebounding numbers – a disaster for a team like Alabama whose strength is not defense.
“They’re good. I’ve watched enough film,” Oats said. “This is going to be one of the tougher teams we’ve played. They’ve got the No. 2 offensive rebounding rate in the country behind Texas A&M. We’ve played A&M. They do it differently. It’s like if they get in trouble with scoring it, they just go with 2 bigs. They go 6’11”, 7’1″, and just kind of mash you on the O-board. We did not rebound it very well at all against Robert Morris. It’s a little concerning.”
Oats spoke at length about Alabama’s rebounding. He insists the Tide are not a poor rebounding team as they’ve contended with the likes of Houston and Texas A&M on the boards this season. At the same time though, Alabama has struggled in that arena a little too often for comfort, Friday being an example.
“We have rebounded it well against some of the better offensive rebounding teams in the country like Texas A&M and Houston,” Said Oats. “But there’s been times we haven’t rebounded it well at all. I think defensive rebounding is going to be a big key. You obviously need to get them to miss in order to have a chance to defensive rebound, so our defense has picked up. It wasn’t where we needed it to be against Robert Morris.”
This concern is especially relevant with the injury to Grant Nelson in mind. Nelson is expected to play, but he won’t be at 100% and it’s unlikely he will start. The opponents just get tougher if it gets past Saint Mary’s, so Alabama also doesn’t want to risk further injury to their key big man either.
The Tide and Gaels face off at 6:10 Sunday on TNT.
Ethan Stone is a Tennessee graduate and loves all things college football and college basketball. Firm believer in fouling while up 3.
