On Jahvon Quinerly’s leadership…
“We have been there. Q has been there. We shot 12-for-25 from the free-throw line. We have to get back and work on some small details like free throws. Q has been there. Close. Went to overtime. You know, we've got more in us, I think. So San Diego State is a great team, we are going to have to prepare really well to play with them. We have to get some better production out of some of our other guys. I think the leadership that Quinerly, Gurley, and even some of our freshman has been giving us is great. Quinerly is the one that's been there, was that close and missed. You know, so we're going to get our guys focused and prepped and we're going to do a good job these next five days leading into this game.”
Benny’s Breakdown: There’s no player on this team who has proven to be more valuable than Quinerly over the past 19 days. While his scoring numbers are up, it’s his play on the court that has really galavanted the group together. Through the off-court distractions, the senior’s return to stardom has motivated Alabama to keep its focus on the task at hand and not worry about what the outside world is saying. It’s also helpful when you can back your talk up with a game-high 22 points to send your team to the Sweet 16 for the second time in three seasons.
On not using his bench as much as he normally would…
“(The starters) were playing well. You know, I think getting into your bench is a lot more important in your first game when you play two games in three days. I kept asking them if they needed one. Quinerly needed one, come out, Charles needed one. We got Pringle in. If they needed a break, we would get them one. If I could tell they were a little tired, we would give them one. You also have longer timeouts in the NCAA Tournament. These timeouts seem like they go forever. So, you know, you get a little more rest time than their standard media timeouts. And we had some timeouts close, you know, rested guy. I think there was 8:44 mark. Rest them. For those, get the next media timeout. Kind of, they didn't sit that much game time, but were able to sit a lot real time. I trust our bench. Just our starters were playing pretty well. And we, kind of, rolled with them. You know, first game I think Rylan led us in minutes with over 21. Today all the starters were, you know, at least 27 minutes. So we can go either way with it. Nimari played double-digit minutes. He was the only one off the bench. Trust the guys. I thought the starters were playing well. And we kind of rolled with them a little bit more tonight.”
Benny’s Breakdown: It’s rare to see Nate Oats shorten the bench, but that’s exactly what he did against Maryland on Saturday. All five of his starters played more than 27 minutes in the win while Nimari Burnett and Noah Gurley were the only two bench players to play 10 minutes or more. As a result, Alabama tallied just 11 bench points front a unit that normally scored 20 or more when the team wins. It didn’t matter on Saturday as the Crimson Tide were carried by Brandon Miller and Quinerly all the way to Louisville.
On Brandon Miller’s health…
“You know what, I didn't know how many minutes he would be able to play. It seemed the longer he went the more loose it got, the better he was. I saw him kind of wince early. He didn't have the same pop. You know, I'm looking at his stats. He ended up 3/11 from 2. And a lot of those are at the rim. I thought his finishing had been really good the whole conference play and everything. He definitely wasn't 100%. He's going to tell you he's 100%. He's a tough kid that's going to play through some stuff. And not let people on how much he's hurt. Him and Clarke spent a lot of time together over the last 48 hours. And give him a lot of credit. He was going to go. There was no question ever about whether he was going to go or not. We'll rest him how we need to rest him until they feel like he's ready to practice. If we don't have him for a few practices, that's fine. We have to get his groin as close to 100% as we can by Friday.”
Benny’s Breakdown: Miller’s groin issue may not have been the main issue to his cold 0-for-5 shooting night against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, but it seemed to really bother him at times. On Saturday, the freshman looked more like himself and once that first shot went through the net, Miller found a way to turn it on and there was nothing Maryland could do to stop it. The forward got back into double digits tallying 19 points on 5 of 17 shooting in the win.
On keeping his team focused on the goals ahead…
“We talk about we've got big picture items and we got to be concerned with that. And then we have the details that matter when you get to practice, in the games, when I say matter, they matter to the game. Like you have to focus on what matters in practice. You have to focus on what matters in the game. And you are where your feet are. When we're in practice, we're focusing on that. When we're in video, we're focused on the preparation for the practice or game. When we're in the game -- and we kind of had that talk going into the SEC Tournament. I thought our guys did a great job focusing on the task at hand for three straight games of the SEC Tournament. I think they have done a really great job for two straight games here. First two rounds focusing on what they need to focus on when they are at practice, video, games, whatever it is. And then, you know, the appropriate big picture stuff will take -- you know, our guys know they are dealing with on that other stuff.”
Benny’s Breakdown: It’s remarkable with how much chatter is going on around this team that it still manages to stay focused on the task at hand. A lot of organizations say they are invested in the on-field and on-court products but are constantly worried about what is happening off the playing surface. Not this Alabama team, no matter how many times people try to divert its focus. Kudos to Oats and the leadership group to keep this team on course.
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