NEWARK, New Jersey — It’s quite the change of pace for Alabama. Literally.
In Sunday’s Round of 32 matchup against Saint Mary’s, the Crimson Tide allowed just three made 3-pointers to a Gaels squad that ranks No. 360 nationally in tempo.
Thursday, however, Alabama will take on BYU — one of the fastest, hottest offenses in the sport — with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line.
“I think since maybe Feb. 12, we looked up, they’ve got the No. 1 offense in the country,” Tide coach Nate Oats told reporters Wednesday. “And they play in a good league in the Big 12 with some really good defensive teams.”
“They’re pretty much good at everything ... so our defense will get tested against these guys on Thursday.”
— Alabama coach Nate Oats on BYU
Oats has long been familiar with Cougars coach Kevin Young, having become acquainted during Young’s tenure as an NBA assistant when Oats visited the Phoenix Suns training camp on multiple occasions.
In his first season in Provo, Young has developed an offensive attack that Oats greatly admires — but now, he’ll have to try and solve it.
“Hopefully we continue to play well on offense, but our defense is going to have to be at an elite level with BYU,” Oats said. “They’re in transition, they’re good in the half-court, they’re good on the boards. They’re pretty much good at everything, they’re great in pick-and-rolls, so our defense will get tested against these guys on Thursday.”
Make no mistake — Alabama is clearly an offensive juggernaut itself. The Crimson Tide are the highest scoring team in the country, ranking No. 4 nationally in offensive efficiency and making 10.2 3-pointers per game.
Pitting two explosive units against one another Thursday should make for some wildly entertaining basketball, but Alabama knows its key to besting BYU lies on the defensive end.
“They play a lot like us, very fast paced, and it should be a very fun game, but it’s going to come down to getting stops,” Crimson Tide guard Mark Sears said. “... We’ve just got to limit their 3s as much as possible. We can’t give them simple 3s ... we’ve got to do a great job of that and we’ve got to try to limit rotations as much as possible, because when they’re breaking down a defense, that’s giving easy 3s to their shooters.
“And we’ve got to do a great job of transition defense because I’ve seen they’re very, very elite in transition, and we’ve just got to do a great job of slowing that down.”
“We’ve been implementing playing fast in transition, getting a lot of offensive and defensive rebounds and playing physical,” added forward Mouhamed Dioubate. “That’s something that (Coach) Oats implemented a lot. And we’ve been watching a lot of film and trying to get our legs rested so we can be ready to go tomorrow.”
Stopping BYU begins with Richie Saunders, the Cougars’ scrappy star who’s averaged 20.5 points across two tournament games thus far. According to Dioubate, the Tide will open the night with Labaron Philon assigned to guard Saunders, but Oats knows that BYU’s attack runs deeper than just one man.
“Richie Saunders has been playing really good basketball for the last month, month and a half. I think double figures in 11 straight games and shooting over 50% from the field, 43 from 3. Doesn’t miss much at the free-throw line,” Oats said. “He’s obviously really good. He’s having a great tournament. We’re going to have to do a great job on him.
“But they’ve got other players, too. They’ve got shooters. Their bigs play really hard. The whole team gets on the (offensive) boards well. There’s a lot going on. Our defense is going to have to be elite but our offense is going to have to be really good, too.”
If Alabama knocks off BYU, it earns a contest against the winner of Duke-Arizona — another pair of accomplished offensive squads. Should the Tide corral the Cougars, another excellent defensive effort Saturday will be necessary to advance to a second-straight Final Four.
Thus, Alabama’s defense determines the fate of its season.
“Looking at efficiency metrics and stuff, you’ve got four really good offenses in this region,” Oats said. “For those people that like watching good offensive basketball, you’ve got four good teams here. I think a lot of who’s going to come out of here is who plays the best defense, and some of these other teams have had better defensive stretches than maybe we’ve had.
“I think we’ve got to get our guys’ attention, which we have, and we’re capable of being a great defensive team, and that’s what we’re going to have to do over these next couple days if we’re going to get out of this four-team bracket here.”
