“We really haven’t played a very good offensive game — we looked good against Charleston, decent, but kind of let our foot off the gas — and we didn’t play well at all against Grand Canyon on offense,” Oats said of the 72-61 win. Alabama shot 36.9%, its third-lowest rate of the season.
After some winter weather-related delays getting out of Spokane, Washington on Monday, the Tide traveled directly to Los Angeles as it prepares to play Thursday night in Crypto.com Arena against the No. 1 seed Tar Heels.
“We’ll do our best over these next four days to get the guys’ legs back under them,” Oats said. “We’re not gonna practice [Tuesday]. We’re gonna try to get their confidence back with their shooting. We’re trying to get the No. 1 offense in the country back while maintaining — I saw somewhere we had the 38th-best defense in the last week. If we didn’t take our foot off the gas against Charleston like we did when we got up 31, I think it would be closer to top 20.
“So if you could combine a top-20 defense and the No. 1 offense, you’ve got a chance to make a Final Four run.”
Alabama has “slipped” to No. 4 in KenPom.com’s offensive efficiency, while its defense has improved slightly over the past week to No. 101 nationally. But that’s still a far cry from North Carolina, which brings the nation’s No. 6-ranked defense to Los Angeles along with the No. 16 offense.
“We’re gonna watch a lot of their current games — teams that have guarded them well. We’re gonna come up with a game plan,” Oats said Monday on Hey Coach. “RJ Davis is one of the best perimeter players in the country. Armando Bacot is one of the best bigs in the country. They’ve got a great combination of perimeter scoring.”
Then there’s sixth-year guard Cormac Ryan, who torched Alabama for 29 points in a 2022 NCAA tournament first-round upset win for Notre Dame over Alabama. That was a career high for Ryan until he scored 31 against Duke earlier this month, now wearing Carolina blue.
“We tried to recruit him out of the portal,” Oats said. “He’s one of the best shooters. Shoot, he’s an old, extremely experienced player. Played a lot of minutes, big-time minutes, at Notre Dame. Shoot, he killed us in the NCAA tournament. We’re definitely familiar with most of the players on this team.”
There are no Tide players left from Alabama’s loss to Notre Dame two years ago, and only three players remaining from Alabama’s four-overtime win over then-No. 1 North Carolina in November 2022. But all three could play big roles Thursday night in Mark Sears, Rylan Griffen and Nick Pringle. For Carolina, Davis and Bacot are the key returnees from that game but the Tar Heels no longer have Caleb Love, who attempted 36 shots in 58 minutes against Alabama last season. However, Love now plays for Arizona and could see Alabama in the Elite Eight with both teams winning Thursday.
“We’ve got so many new players,” Oats emphasized. “But system-wise, it makes sense to watch a little bit of that [2022] game.”
