When you think of Alabama's offense, generally fast paced, three point shooting, and no mid range shots will be the first things to pop up in some order. Nate Oats has become the poster child for the analytics movement involving taking as many shots as possible from three and at the rim.
One thing that may not pop into your head immediately is pick and rolls, but Oats has quickly doubled down on them this season.
Through Alabama's three games, they're running the most pick and rolls out of any team in the entire country, and it's by a fairly wide margin. Yes, it's only three games, and there's a good chance the numbers start to normalize a bit as the season progresses, but there's been a noticeable uptick in just how many pick and rolls that Alabama has been running.
Again, it's through only three games, but Alabama has a pick and roll lead to a shot, foul, or turnover on 47.1% of their possessions. The next closest is Stephen F. Austin at 44.0% of their possessions. When you account for Alabama finishing their possession in transition on about 20% of them, that means that Alabama is running a pick and roll on 58.7% of their half court possessions.
The pick and roll is a very simple concept. Someone, generally a big, positions themselves near the defender guarding the ball so that the ball handler can dribble around them, putting the defender in a disadvantageous position. The simplicity may just be exactly why Oats is even relying on it more this season.
Per Kenpom, Alabama has the 24th fastest offensive possessions in the country (as of this writing). Getting out in transition helps with a large bulk of that, but there has to be plenty of pace within the half court to achieve what Oats wants to achieve with the offense.
And that's where the pick and roll comes into play. If you want to play as fast as possible, simply setting a screen once you cross half court is the easiest way to get everyone organized. Looking at the clip above, look at the clock when the ball is inbounded until it goes into the rim. Within 8 seconds, Alabama is able to inbounds the ball, set an Empty pick and roll, and get all the way to the rim before laying it in. That quick of an offense doesn't happen with complexity.
Nate Oats has continually doubled down on generating looks from three and at the rim, getting a Final Four run in the process. Now with Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway spearheading this offense, he's trusted them even more to simply go and create with space.
The above image shows Alabama's pick and roll usage (PnR Frequency) every year under Nate Oats. PnR Usage %ile shows where in the country they ranked (100 means they run more pick and roll than anyone, 0 would mean they run the fewest). The far right is pick and roll Points Per Possession.
Now that the semantics are out of the way, the pick and roll usage has jumped 15.5% from last season. Even if the frequency normalizes a bit with a larger sample size, 15.5% is a very significant jump. Maybe even more important is that the efficiency has stayed essentially the same as last season. So despite running a lot more pick and roll, their efficiency hasn't dropped any.
So aside from being able to generate a quick look, what's the point of running so much pick and roll?
Keeping in mind that the objective of the Oats offense is to generate a look at the rim or from three, look at the spacing that the possession below has.
Alabama is generally going to have one of two different spacing schemes within their offense, and the above one is the most common. This is their 5 out look which almost always features a guy in each corner and someone spaced multiple feet beyond the three point line on the wing. With the 5 man screening, look at just how much space there is to drive. Philon refuses that screen to be able to get two feet in the paint and convert the and-1. Also, notice just HOW far the wing is spaced, and how much respect St. John's was giving to him. This is what allows Philon to refuse the screen and drive towards the side with two defenders stationed.
One common theme between the two clips shown is the simplicity that occurs. Run the floor, set a screen, space, and drive. Rinse and repeat. In today's college game, you'll see teams run a lot of pick and roll variations, or they'll run a lot of decoy action, action designed to set up the rest of the offense while not really giving the team a chance to score. Alabama is quite the opposite. Sure, they'll mix in some Spain or Ram screens, but it largely is just setting a screen and trusting their guards or bigs to go make plays with the spacing they create within their offense.
There is one common movement that has popped within the early film. Watch Houston Mallette (#95) start in the left corner and where he ends up.
That cut that he made is called a Danny Green cut. Its purpose is to cut from the weakside corner to the strong side corner, putting the defender in an indecisive state. Fletcher Loyer (#2) of Purdue is guarding Mallette in this possession. Purdue's game plan was to bring in whoever was guarding the weakside corner to try and make it more difficult for the dynamic Bama guards to get downhill. With Mallette cutting through though, Loyer had a decision to make, and unfortunately for him, Loyer didn't realize he even had a decision until too late. By the time Loyer recognized that he needed to get out into the corner, the roller already positioned himself to pin in Loyer, resulting in the look from three.
Below is the other spacing formation that Alabama will work with. Notice where everyone is while the second screen occurs.
In this clip, Alabama utilizes the dunker spot (area outside the paint on the baseline) to store their big after the roll, while having a shooter in each corner area. This can create a more congested paint potentially, but it also forces the defense to have to decide to help off bigs near the rim or not. One other thing to notice is the strong side corner (#95 Houston Mallette) lifts from the corner to the wing. This is almost always an automatic that the Bama players have to abide by.
Last clip, I promise. The spacing that this Alabama offense works with can't be overstated. It isn't a new thing for Nate Oats, but it's being relied on even more.
As Williamson (#15) cuts through the gut to set the screen, he flips the angle of his screen last second to start setting it towards the middle of the floor. As Philon refuses the screen, there's not a single player inside of the paint. St. John's rotates over to the rim from the low man, but if you give someone as good as Philon that type of runway, he's going to be able to convert more often than not.
It's great and all that Nate Oats is going even further into simple, quick basketball, but is it actually going to end up being beneficial? It's only been three games, so no one will be able to say for certain for a bit. As of right now, this would be the third best offense Nate Oats has coached based on Kenpom offensive rating, only behind the 2024 and 2025 Alabama teams. Most people would probably also say that this Alabama team isn't quite as talented as the last two, even if it's still going to be a very good team this season.
The early data shows that it may just be what Nate Oats is looking for though.
Above shows the percentage of shots that Alabama has taken either from three or at the rim under Nate Oats. Over the last five seasons, Nate Oats has continually squeezed the orange, trying to get every single drop out of the offense that he can. In that process, he's been to 4 Sweet Sixteens, 2 Elite Eights, and 1 Final Four. Oats has dug in even more, identifying that relying more on his guards in pick and roll will allow his team to generate more of the shots that he wants. If the argument is that this team may be slightly less talented than last year's, trying to play the math game even more makes sense as a way to make up for it.
That's the Alabama offense, and it puts defenses into a real bind. Should you help on the drive and give up kickout threes? Purdue went that method and played with fire a bit as some of the role players like Noah Williamson, Taylor Bol Bowen, and Aiden Sherrell knocked down threes in the first half. Credit to Purdue for sticking with the game plan though as Alabama really cooled off from three in the second half. St. John's tried a variety of pick and roll coverages with little success. North Dakota hard hedged in their game against the Crimson Tide, only to see Alabama essentially pick whatever shot they want every time down.
It should be mentioned that having guards like Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway are also why this offense is possible. With Philon's ability to get two feet in the paint whenever he wants, and Holloway's ability to pull up from three or get downhill, defenses have their hands full before even accounting for what the wings and bigs can do.
What Alabama is doing with analytics and pick and rolls isn't a novel concept, and Nate Oats isn't rewriting the offensive basketball philosophy books. However, he's putting his team in the spots that he believes will be able to make them most successful, and he isn't going to be afraid to continue to ride this wave.
