Everything Nate Oats, Alabama Said After Obliterating Texas Tech in NCAA Tournament

4-seed Alabama obliterated 5-seed Texas Tech 90-65 in the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 on Sunday night in Tampa. The victory helped the Crimson Tide officially reach its fourth straight Sweet 16! Alabama is the only program in the country to reach the Elite Eight in each of the last two seasons.

UA head coach Nate Oats, alongside Latrell Wrightsell Jr., Houston Mallette and Noah Williamson, spoke to the media during the postgame press conference. Here's a full transcript of what they said.

Nate Oats

: It was a fun game to be a part of. Texas Tech is a very good team, and they've done a lot to win the amount of games they've won and beat the team. And they lost a national player of the year candidate in Toppin, and then figured out a win against get some really good teams, I mean Iowa State's Sweet 16 team, dominated Kentucky (indiscernible) fastest today.

And this Tech team went to Iowa State and beat them without Toppin. For us to win in the fashion we did, I've got a lot of respect for Grant. I think he's one of the best coaches in the country.

Total class act. I got a lot of respect for what he did when he lost Toppin. For our guys to come in and do what they did in this game, I've got a lot of respect for these seniors.

They came ready to go. Trelly's defense on Anderson — Anderson's one of the best guards in the country — but Trelly's defense on Anderson, 2-for-11, 1-of-7 from 3, seven points, one rebound, three assists two turnovers — I don't know if he's ever had a game that bad because I think he's one of the best guards in the country. You've got to give Wrightsell a ton of credit.

All three of these seniors came with the mentality we're not going home. And you could tell it. And I tell our guys all the time, just be about the right stuff, lose yourself in the game and the other stuff takes care of itself.

So you kind of go down the list. Houston wins the hardhat tonight in limited minutes. Noah was right there.

And Noah had nine, Trelly had 13. They were some of our leaders. You look at the three of these guys, what they shot from 3, Trelly goes 6-of-9, Houston goes 5-for-7, and Noah goes 2-for-2.

I think they just bought into being about the right stuff. These guys hit 13 threes between the three of them, go 13-of-18. When you lose yourself in a game, lock into playing defense, making the effort plays, getting stops, getting rebounds, that stuff takes care of itself.

And I think this game exemplified it as much as any game you've ever seen. I thought these guys were about the right stuff. I'm super happy for these seniors.

This is the fourth straight Sweet 16 we've been to. These guys know what winning takes. Trelly has been here three years, been part of a Final Four and an Elite Eight, now a Sweet 16 team, we're trying to make a deeper run.

Houston came in, was part of that last year's Elite Eight run, even though he wasn't playing at that point. And Noah came in here to win, and he's been all about the right stuff. Super happy.

He's 3-for-3 in the tournament. And I've seen a different side of him. He ends up with eight points, plays well.

Thought he made some big defensive plays. Had a steal. Really happy for these guys.

Really happy for the entire team. I thought these guys really brought the right stuff. Q.

Could you address what Coach talked about, this not being your last game. What got into your mindset, what went into tonight to make sure that tonight wasn't your last night of college basketball?

Latrell Wrightsell Jr

.: I mean, you know, you never want to stop playing. You don't want it to end. I think it's self-explanatory.

You go out there and just fight to move on, and that's what we did. We came out there with energy and effort that wasn't matched today. And we played for each other.

We played to move on, but we also played one possession at a time. We didn't take it for granted. We just wanted to get a stop and a bucket each possession at a time.

It was never looking at the bigger picture, never looking at the score, just one possession at a time. And I think over time it built up a lead for us. We're thankful we made shots.

But at the end of the day, it was really a focus on defense and our mentality to get stops. And that's what we did. Once we got stops, our offense took care of itself.

Houston Mallette

: To piggyback off what Trelly said, our team has real Mudita. We cheer for others' success, each other's success like it's our own success. You can see it with our team with our program I mean.

We've dealt with probably more adversity than any of the other programs in the country this year. I think we've been really well equipped in not focusing what's happened to us but more so our response. I think the way we've responded time after time after time and the way we've prepared in practice — like our last week of practice was probably the best week of practice we've had.

Our film numbers were the best they've been. We're doing all the right things, I think, and I think it's showing off. And we just — the big thing is we love each other.

I told Trelly today, I love you, bro. I told everybody I don't want to leave Alabama. I will die for this school and this place.

These guys love it as well. That's been our whole motto this year.

Noah Williamson

: We had a long day leading up to this game, a lot of time to think about the finality of it. If we lose today, that's the last college basketball game that us three are going to ever play. I think that led into us having the right disposition coming out, playing hard.

I think the scoreboard kind of took care of itself. I wouldn't say we really stopped to look at it too often. It's just enjoying yourself, playing as hard as you can.

It's the joy of basketball. Q.

Noah, I'm assuming you saw what happened to Florida. They came out, didn't get after it right away and it became a problem. Did you talk about that, like, we've got to put the pedal to the metal right away?

Noah Williamson

: We talked about, right off the rip, we've got to come out with the right disposition, play hard, turn them over, not turn it over ourselves. And I think we did just that.

Houston Mallette

: I think it all goes into our preparation. I think we've been incredibly prepared, and we've focused on the things we can control and the things we need to focus on.