Ever since Nate Oats arrived in Tuscaloosa in Spring of 2019, we’ve talked repeatedly about how Oats likes to assemble his teams - long, mostly position-less athletes who can shoot and defend. The 2019-20 squad was obviously quite short on those expectations, being that it was essentially Avery Johnson’s team. Even the SEC Championship winning 2020-21 group was led mostly by Avery holdovers. Still, that team definitely fit the bill better than last year’s team, which often couldn’t defend a soul or knock down a three-ball to save their lives.
That will not be the case this season.