Alabama MBB Head Coach Nate Oats Explains Why No Timeout Was Called in Final Seconds

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Following a heartbreaking 80-79 loss to the Ole Miss Rebels on Friday night, Alabama head coach Nate Oats spoke to the media during his post-game press conference. He was asked what he would have done differently on the final play of the game. His response was "Yeah, one, I wish he had taken it 'cause I think kind of gave it there to Aiden (Sherrell) in a tough spot. I thought he was open on a midrange. Probably should have called timeout. It's one of those we talked about. If we get a miss, we're in the flow, we think we got pretty good players that we get our spacing right, rather let them make plays before the defense gets set."

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Oats also included comments about calling a time out saying, "When I saw it getting a little crowded there, maybe wasn't looking good, I got the option as a coach in college basketball to call a timeout. I probably should have helped him out, called timeout. We probably should have run something a little bit better. So that's on me. You can't fault Labaron for making a pass. He's playing, having to make reads in the paint, split-second reads. He usually makes pretty good reads."

After storming back to make the Game competitive, The Rebels missed a free throw and Philon grabbed the rebound, the Crimson Tide had a chance to tie it however Philons shot was blocked, Houston Mallette Fouled an Ole miss player on the shot and the Rebels went back to the free throw line and once again missed it allowing for Philon to rebound the shot and go coast to coast with a chance to win it when an attempted pass to Aden Holloway was blocked and the game was over.

In Nate's opening statement, he stated that he was "A little disappointed with myself just being able to convince our guys how good this team was going to be. They came
out - we didn't have an edge to us. They came out ready to play. They kind of killed us on the effort stuff. In the first half, everything was real comfortable for them. We didn't play hard enough. We ended up getting out-rebounded in the game by a large margin to start. They got going."

Coach Oats was also asked to elaborate on his opening statement, where he said, "You go in and tell them this team has won two in a row, they're playing better. Kind of just hope that they listen to you. Maybe I needed to show them a bunch of stats, how much better they were. The team obviously struggled. Their record wasn't great. 15 seed in the SEC tournament."

Alabama will wait for Selection Sunday to find out its next opponent in the NCAA tournament. The next time the Crimson Tide faces a tough loss, it will be the loss that ends its season.

Where will the Crimson Tide rank in the NCAA tournament seeding? Find out on Sunday, March 15th.

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Ryan Bond is an intern for Tide 100.9 with an avid interest in college football and college basketball. To keep up with Ryan, follow him on X at @Ryanb5172