SPOKANE, Wash. − It doesn't matter.
Nate Oats spoke those words more emphatically and more clearly than any others he said while standing outside his locker room deep inside Spokane Arena on Sunday night. He wasn't talking about the NCAA Tournament game No. 4 seed Alabama basketball had just won 72-61 against No. 12 seed Grand Canyon . That certainly mattered. Instead, he was sharing the mantra. A season-long demand. The one that, for weeks upon weeks, he and his staff stressed to the Crimson Tide players about not letting one bad possession bleed into another.
"I don't care whether we hit eight threes in a row or we've turned it over," Oats told The Tuscaloosa News, " It doesn't matter ... what happened the last possession. We have to move to the next possession on (defense) and just be locked in and sit down and get a stop."
For too much of the season, Alabama hasn't been able to accomplish that against quality competition. Too often, the Crimson Tide let missed shots turn its defense into flimsy paper that folded.
Then on Sunday, with the season on the line and a struggling offense, Alabama didn't fold. It stood firm.
The Crimson Tide had its lowest scoring output since Jan. 20, yet emerged with the victory over Grand Canyon to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third time in four seasons. That's because of the defensive intensity that remained, no matter the offense. At long last, Alabama put together a full 40 minutes of defense that Oats had long coveted. The Crimson Tide held the Lopes to .859 points per possession.
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What changed? Start with guard Mark Sears.
His offense has been stellar throughout the 2023-24 season, as Sears earned consensus second-team All-American status. His defense, however, hadn't always been a constant.
Sears said after the first-round win over Charleston that he had heard what people had been saying about the Alabama defense. "And I took it personal," Sears said Friday.
That showed again Sunday. Sears tallied three steals, second on the team behind only Aaron Estrada's four. Sears also grabbed nine defensive rebounds.
"Mark Sears plays hard like that, we're a great defensive team," Oats said. "Look, Mark Sears didn't want to go home. Bottom line is, Mark doesn't like losing. I think he realized the effort we needed on defense from him."
Instead of going home, Alabama will head to Los Angeles to face No. 1 seed UNC on Thursday with a trip to the Elite Eight on the line. If the Crimson Tide wants to have a shot at knocking off a No. 1 seed, it's going to need more where that came from defensively.
It will need more efforts like the ones it got from guys such as Nick Pringle. In 13 minutes of playing time, Pringle grabbed five boards and blocked two shots.
"Nick Pringle's energy has been unbelievable for the last four days," Oats said.
Alabama will also need what it got from a handful of other players. Estrada managed four steals and eight defensive rebounds. Rylan Griffen tallied a block and two steals while guarding Grand Canyon's leading scorer, Tyon Grant-Foster. Mo Dioubate had two blocks in 12 minutes of play.
All of those efforts were needed against Grand Canyon. The Crimson Tide's offense had an off night. The foundation of the team wasn't there in a season when the offense has almost always been considerably better than the defense. Then on Sunday, Alabama shot 37% from the field and 26% from deep. Those numbers wouldn't have beat most teams, much less an NCAA Tournament team, with the way the Crimson Tide has too often played defense this season.
But Alabama didn't play that porous defense. It showcased stonewall defense.
"We started a new season," Pringle said. "We wanted to bring it out tonight. We really wanted this game. We really wanted to punch a ticket to LA, and here we are."
Headed to LA, playing shutdown defense and dancing into the Sweet 16. Who would have thought two weeks ago?
If or when shots don't fall again against a top Tar Heels defense, the Crimson Tide players better be ready to shake off the missed shots, put their hard hats back on and build a defensive performance for the ages. There's no chance of an upset otherwise in the city of angels.
Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter .
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Alabama basketball: Will elite defense continue vs UNC?
