Nate Oats shares what Maryland's defense did to slow three-point shooting

Nate Oats is pleased Alabama is on to the Sweet Sixteen, but he’s hoping the Crimson Tide shoot better from three than they did against Maryland in the Round of 32 on Saturday.

While Alabama took care of business by a score of 73-51, the Crimson Tide weren’t able to open up their offense behind the arc, only taking nine threes throughout the entire game. Afterwards, Oats shared how the Terrapins defense affected his team’s ability from deep.

“Defense is somewhat ours. They try to guard pick-and-roll with two guys, they drop the big, they don’t really help off. They weren’t helping off our shooters. We didn’t do a good enough job attacking their bigs in the pick-and-roll,” stated Oats. “I thought that backup center’s in without Reese in. We didn’t do a great job the first play out of the second half, we kind of tried to screen the big. Quinerly got downhill, got the layup. They made other adjustments. To be honest with you, I thought we got — and I have to go back and look at this. I thought we got a lot of our 3’s in the second half off offensive rebounds, some transition opportunities, kind of broken plays. Because they had a good play and they did a good job. We got to do a better job with our offensive plan against a team that’s going to do that.

“I told our guys, 1/7, that’s not how we play. We’d like to get 30 plus up a game. Only got 21 up tonight, but able to get on the offensive boards. And we got 23 shots at the rim, so did they. They were 12/23. We were 13/23. Kind of the difference was they ended up taking 21-9 at the rim 2’s and we only took 8. So, you know, we were able to take a lot more 3’s. We made 6; I think they only made 1. So, you know, it’s still a difference. We got little different styles. We were able to get off a few more. Quinerly was able to get off a few off the dribble in the second half. He’s going 4/6. He’s playing at a pretty high level right now.”

Regardless of their efforts from deep, Alabama is one win away from the Elite Eight, and it’s San Diego State standing in their way. The Crimson Tide have opened as a 7.5-point favorite over the Aztecs, and they’ll be looking to hit that mark and more come time.