TUSCALOOSA, Ala.—  Nate Oats said some form of the word “defense” six times in his opening statement during Friday’s press conference. Needless to say, he wasn’t happy with his team’s performance on the defensive end in No. 6 Alabama’s 97-90 win at North Dakota on Wednesday night, giving up 40 points to UND guard Treysen Eaglestaff in the process.

Oats called defense a theme around the program the last few days as the Crimson Tide prepares for the final two non-conference games against Kent State and South Dakota State to clean things up before the gauntlet of SEC play begins on Jan. 4 against Oklahoma.

“Both these next two games, our defense needs to be significantly better than where it was up in North Dakota,” Oats said.

Alabama’s overall defensive efficiency numbers dropped significantly after the performance against North Dakota. The Crimson Tide is now 57th in defensive efficiency according to KenPom. But this isn’t an unfamiliar position for Oats. One of his past Crimson Tide teams had similar metrics in December and finished the year top-three in defensive efficiency.

Finishing the season as a top-three team in defensive efficiency is a goal again for Oats this year, and to get there he feels like Alabama has to “get back to some fundamentals” on defense.

“There’s certain things you just have to have, and if you’re not focused on them in practice or drilling them, they start to go away a little bit,” Oats said. “So that’s what we did today just at the beginning of practice and probably going to have to continue to do it working on some of the fundamentals— closeouts, staying in front of the ball, ball pressure, tracing it… I think our guys have to realize how hard you have to play against these good players and good teams in order to be any good on defense.”

Oats is probably more known for his high-powered and 3-point shooting offenses, but blue collar toughness is what he’s built his brand on. Of course he wants his teams to play well offensively and score at a high rate, but he also wants to be one of the best defenses in the country every year.

The Crimson Tide is currently 326th in scoring defense, allowing 78.9 points per game.And as Alabama is looking to trim down its 11-man rotation before starting SEC play, Oats has made it clear to the players that if they don’t play hard on defense, they won’t be getting minutes.

“Guys have got to have a sense of urgency on that end of the floor,” Oats said. “I start to play the guys that do have that sense of urgency. And we’ve got to cut the rotation down a little bit anyway, so some guys that don’t want to guard just aren’t going to play very much anymore.”

Kent State and South Dakota State are two of the lowest-rated teams in the NET Alabama will face this season. This doesn’t mean they’re pushovers, but Alabama’s level of competition is going to jump significantly once SEC play begins. The next two games will be important for Oats and the team to figure out if they have what it takes to become an elite defensive team and which players are going to fit the best to make that happen.

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