Alabama basketball coach throws shade at South Carolina player after win

After Alabama’s 74-47 win over South Carolina on Tuesday night, Nate Oats showed up to his postgame news conference with Myles Stute on his mind.

The Crimson Tide had just defeated the Gamecocks handily in an SEC game, and Oats, the Alabama men’s basketball coach, was quick to remind reporters what Stute, a USC guard, had said a few weeks ago as the Gamecocks headed into conference play.

“South Carolina’s a confident team that’s been winning,” Oats said. “Myles Stute made the comment that the SEC wasn’t ready for South Carolina. We made sure we played for our guys. We made the point that we’ve been the team that’s been winning the SEC here lately, not South Carolina.”

Oats was referencing a postgame comment by Stute, a transfer from Vanderbilt, after USC beat Florida A&M at home Dec. 30 and moved to 12-1 ahead of its 18-game conference schedule. After the win, a reporter asked Stute if the Gamecocks were ready for SEC play.

“I hope they’re ready for us,” Stute said. “That’s my answer. I hope they’re ready for us.”

That comment appeared to irk Oats, who brought it up unprompted during his opening statement after Alabama’s 27-point win and again at the end of his news conference while discussing a double technical foul that occurred in the second half of the game.

USC guard Meechie Johnson and Alabama forward Max Scharnowski (a walk-on player who was sitting on the bench at the time) picked up offsetting technical fouls at the 8:09 mark of the second half at Coleman Coliseum with Alabama leading 54-37.

South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said in his postgame remarks that Alabama’s bench “instigated” the interaction with Johnson. Johnson, the reigning SEC Player of the Week, had a team-high 16 points in the loss but shot just 6 of 18 from the field and 2 of 9 on 3-pointers.

“He had struggled, and that’s what happens when you’re a good player and you get into a hostile environment,” Paris said, per TideIllustrated.com. “Everyone did exactly what they should do. The fans did, the players were letting him know about it. He made a shot I think right before that, and I’m sure they were letting him know about what the score was and all the kinds of things young people do. And so Meechie responded.”

Paris added: “I think his was a retaliatory technical foul, to be honest with you. So they called it on the bench, because that’s who really instigated the interaction at all, was the bench. But Meechie responded, and probably earned his T on that, too.”

Oats later confirmed the referees told him Alabama’s bench got a technical in that moment for getting into it with Johnson. But, he added, there was “a lot of talking” throughout the game and brought up Stute’s comment a second time in rehashing those tense moments.

Oats said USC players “were yelling at our bench for whatever reason” as the Gamecocks started off hot with a 13-3 run in the opening minutes of the first half.

“They made the statement the SEC isn’t ready for them,” Oats said. “Guess we’ll see if the SEC is ready for them. But this SEC team was ready for them.”

After winning its SEC opener at home Saturday against Mississippi State, South Carolina fell to 13-2 and 1-1 in conference play after losing at Alabama. The Crimson Tide — who, as Oats made sure to note in his opening statement, are the reigning SEC regular season and tournament champions — moved to 10-5 and 2-0 in the SEC with the win.

“They were talking during the game,” Oats said. “I don’t condone us talking to any other team off the bench, but I heard what their guys were saying right out of the gate. They had a 13-point run, but it didn’t last very long.”