Alabama wins their first Final Four, defeating Clemson with a three-pointer

Alabama head coach Nate Oats said earlier this week that he credits famed, now-retired Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban with his credo of always looking forward to the next play, the next game, rather than getting caught up in the present’s success or failure.

But after defeating No. 6 Clemson 89-82 in the Elite Eight on Saturday night, Alabama’s “next” step is in uncharted territory: its first visit in the Final Four.

Despite being down 13 points in the first half, the Tide refused to give up. Instead, they kept to their game plan of shooting their way out of difficulty, relying on senior guard Mark Sears, the program’s single-season scoring leader, to score 18 of his game-high 23 points in the second half, including six three-pointers.

“A lot of people doubted us,” Oats said after accepting the West Regional Championship trophy. “They showed up. “They believed.

The Tigers have built a name for themselves throughout the competition by getting off to early starts. On Saturday, they did it again, jumping out to a 26-13 lead after 12 minutes, due to 14 points in the paint, while their defense held Alabama to 1-of-13 from beyond the arc. The Tide went nearly four minutes without scoring.

For the majority of the first half, one of the country’s top offenses was repressed, but not for long. When Alabama began to hit a couple of 3-pointers, the rhythm returned to its attack, and Clemson’s 13-point lead faded after a 22-6 run gave the Tide a three-point edge at halftime.

But Clemson did not go away easily. Early in the second half, the Tigers regained the lead for a brief moment before Alabama reclaimed it with a 3-pointer by Sears, which they would not lose for the rest of the game. Saturday’s game was ultimately determined by three-pointers made. Alabama didn’t stop shooting after a slow start from beyond the arc, making 10 of its next 17 three-pointers. The Tide concluded the game shooting more than 40% from deep.

“It seemed like we hit timely 3 after timely 3,” Oats said.

The Tide committed to their offensive strategy, even against a squad that tried to beat them with a different style of basketball. Oats’ team scored 26 points in the paint, 15 at the free throw line, and 48 on 16 three-pointers. In other words, none of their points fell within the middle.

“We could not keep them in front of us. “When they start making threes, you start inching out in space,” Clemson coach Brad Brownell explained. “And they shot before we could get down and set our zone a number of times; not many teams play that way. And so thanks to them for modern basketball.”

It wasn’t just Sears who caught fire from below. After missing one of his initial three-point attempts in the first half, forward Jarin Stevenson, encouraged by his teammates and coach, finished with 19 points off the bench, including five threes.

“He grew up tonight, and we don’t win this game without him,” Sears said of Stevenson. “Playing for a coach that gives you the freedom … he wants you to shoot open shots … it’s something you love being around.”

Even when Clemson was forced to adopt Alabama’s style of play and begin shooting more three-pointers, it was insufficient. With little under eight minutes remaining in the second half, Clemson’s Joseph Girard III made three-pointers on consecutive possessions. The only problem? Alabama matched him on the other end, hitting three consecutive three-pointers to take a nine-point lead with just over six minutes remaining.

“They shoot them fast and make them,” Girard said of the Alabama shooting. “When they make them it feels like they’ll never miss.”

With the Tigers making only eight of their 25 3-point shots, the math favored Alabama, and over the course of 40 minutes, that proved to be the determining factor in Alabama’s advancement to the next round.

“A lot of people question can you win big in March shooting all the 3s you shoot?” Oats said. “For all naysayers, is 36 too many? Look, we’re not trying to shoot 50 3s, we’re trying to take the most efficient shots.”

Alabama was accompanied by a third-party analytics firm throughout the tournament. Oats stated that at halftime, the group informed him that they were ahead 11 points in “expected value points,” giving Oats and the rest of the team confidence to stay the course. If this method can help teams win in the NBA, it can also help them win in college.

However, Oats isn’t just about statistics. He stated Saturday night that he has an Excel document with a practice regimen and a page for encouraging words. The majority of them, he added, are words from Saban that have influenced him since before he became Tuscaloosa’s basketball coach.

In the face of a historic achievement for the program, Oats may continue to follow Saban’s guidance and focus on what comes next. However, the Final Four berth is a fitting culmination for a coach who has won eight tournament games in the last four seasons, one more than the team has won in the previous 26.

Extending history will not be easy. Alabama faces the tournament’s top overall seed and defending champion, UConn, in the Final Four, which will be their most difficult challenge yet. Dan Hurley, the Huskies’ coach, is the brother of Bobby Hurley, the coach who first hired Oats as an assistant in college.

Oats finds the full-circle moment weird. Wearing the net he had just cut down around his neck, he tried to remember how he used to watch “One Shining Moment” on VHS cassettes as a kid and how, just 11 years ago, he was teaching high school basketball.

“I don’t really know if it’s really hit me yet,” he remarked. “It probably won’t hit me until the Final Four is over.”

Armed with an efficient basketball style as proof of concept and lots of internal belief, Oats and Co. have created their own brilliant moment and are poised to continue shocking the collegiate basketball world. Last year, as a No. 1 seed, their dream run was cut short in the Sweet 16, teaching them how quickly a successful regular season can end.

As a 4-seed this year, the Tide have exceeded expectations, and despite the fact that a juggernaut stands in their way, they understand that the nature of the sport allows for anything to happen in a single game.

“The best team doesn’t always win,” Oats explained. “You gotta be hot at the right time.”

Alabama is two wins away from winning its first national championship, and the team is hoping to keep their fire going for a bit longer.