Alabama head basketball coach Nate Oats was angry at his team but gave props to Auburn in the aftermath of an epic 94-85 IBOB victory. Oats was passive-aggressive at both the reporter who asked him about his team's late-game collapse.
“I don’t have an answer to why that may have happened. Maybe you give some credit to Auburn. It was a tight game,” Oats said during his postgame press conference, per On3. “They were playing hard and forced some tough shots. They’re a good defensive team. They put together a good game plan. If there’s a tight game, we have to do a better job finding better shots if the game’s tight. There’s human nature and a tendency to loosen up. So maybe when they were up 14, maybe they gave up some better shots to us. I don’t know. I don’t have a great answer to that.
“A good stat. As I’m watching the game and breaking it down, I’ll be looking at why we went (2 of 13) when the game was tight. I don’t have a great answer to that one right now."
Alabama won the rebounding battle by a +9 margin and had two fewer fouls than Auburn. Chances to win the game were there for the Crimson Tide.
Poor shooting comes down to the players, but it's also on Oats to get his players in good spots to execute. Within six minutes, Alabama was outscored by six. Bruce Pearl had better-performing players, but his offense was creating better looks. Credit to the gameplan on the other end from the Tigers' coaching staff.
Oats gave that credit. But he didn't want to be reminded of his failures postgame. The wound was too fresh, and his reaction to it being brought up was solid evidence of that.