Nate Oats and Alabama have a huge task ahead of them on Saturday afternoon: slow down Dalton Knecht and Tennessee’s emerging offense.

The Vols have not been a particularly dynamic offense in recent years, but that has changed this season with the addition of Knecht. Tennessee is playing arguably its best offensive basketball of the season as it prepares to host Alabama this weekend.

Knecht has scored 28+ points in 3 consecutive games. He scored 28 points against Mississippi State, 36 against Georgia and 39 in a win over Florida in the mid-week. Over those 3 contests, he’s shot over 57% from the field and 56% from 3-point range. Knecht’s recent outburst has resulted in Tennessee scoring more than 1.16 points per possession in back-to-back games.

On Friday, Oats spoke about what makes Knecht so effective within Tennessee’s offense.

“Dalton, shoot, he’s got size, he’s athletic, he shoots it really well, so you gotta be right there on the catch, otherwise he gets the shot off quick,” Oats said. “He can shoot over the top of smaller guards. They’ve done a good job. There’s some similar stuff on offense but they’re playing to Dalton’s strengths a little bit.”

Oats also pointed to some of Tennessee’s other offensive weapons such as Santiago Vescovi, Zakai Zeigler and Jonas Aidoo. Each of those players is capable of carrying a big offensive workload on any given night in SEC play.

“The issue is if you focus your entire defense on [Knecht], they’ve got other really good players,” Oats added. “I mean, [Santiago] Vescovi, he’s one of the best guards in the league. He’s been here. [Zakai] Zeigler is one of the best guards in the league, he’s been there. [Jonas] Aidoo can score it. [Josiah-Jordan] James has played well.

“They’ve got multiple guys that can score it. So it’s hard to just completely focus on Dalton, but you’ve got to focus on him because he is scoring the ball at a high clip right now.”

Both Alabama and Tennessee are firmly in contention for the SEC regular season title. Alabama enters this game with a perfect 4-0 record in SEC play while the Vols are 3-1.

Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. ET on Saturday afternoon.