NCAA Tournament: Alabama wins first round against RMU 90-81

Alabama beats Robert Morris 90-81 to win first round of NCAA Tournament

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Updated: 3:44 PM CDT Mar 21, 2025

Congrats. All right, good afternoon. Welcome back to the interview room here at Rocket Arena and the 2025 NCA Tournament. We’re joined now by the Alabama Crimson Tide, 90 to 81 winners over the Robert Morris Colonials to advance to the second round. Please remember to silence your cell phones as *** courtesy to the team members and other media in the room. When you’re, uh, asked to, when you please raise your hand to ask *** to ask *** question, we’ll bring *** microphone to you. We have mic holders on either side, and when you do ask *** question, please introduce yourself and your media affiliation and *** reminder that there is no recording of press conferences throughout the NCAA tournament. Coach, congrats on the win. If you wouldn’t mind starting us out with an opening statement, we’ll then open up to questions for the players. Yeah, I thought, uh, Robert Morris played hard, good team. You know their effort was great, you know, they ended up with 16 offensive rebounds. We only had 5, so you know, uh, you gotta give them *** lot of credit. We, we knew they, they played tough, you know, we shot *** little higher percentage. There was more offensive boards for them to get, but we, we didn’t do *** good enough job keeping them off the glass, you know, you look at *** kid like Dickerson, you know, he had more offensive rebounds than our entire team combined, so. You know, *** little, *** little disappointed in our defensive rebounding, but I, I’ll say this our guys resilient. We said coming into this tournament that we’re gonna welcome some adversity. Hopefully it’s not self-inflicted. I thought tonight some of it was with the rebounds we gave up, but whether it’s missed chats, whether it’s referee calls, whether who cares what it is if we face some adversity, let’s welcome it, let’s handle it with. The right attitude. I thought Mark did *** really good job, you know, wasn’t going great for him. I think maybe he only had 3 points at the half if I remember right, uh, what he, yeah, he had 19 in the second half, ended up with 22 and 10 assists, you know, things weren’t going great. Maybe in the past he, you know, wouldn’t have been as positive as he was, but I thought he was aggressive, got downhill, got to the free throw line, drew 10 fouls in the second half, he ends up with 22, 10 and 5 and. You know, he didn’t shoot it particularly well, only won *** 5 from 3 in the past. Maybe those are games where he gets *** little frustrated, doesn’t play as hard as he does on defense, but that wasn’t the case tonight. I thought he competed really hard and that’s what we’re looking for out of our leaders, you know, Moe had some. Possessions that maybe weren’t the best for him, he ends up with *** double-double. I thought he played well. There’s *** lot of, *** lot of guys you could point to that had had good play, you know, we got good minutes out of Dareon Reed. I mean, you know, for him to come in and. Just over 10 minutes get 9 points, 4 rebounds. I thought it was pretty good, so, you know, we were hoping not to play Grant, but. You know, I think it was *** 4 point game and Grant, about 8 minutes to go, he stood up like he, like put me in, and we got to go, so. You know, I trust him. He shows up big in big games. He came in, we went on *** run right away. I think we outscored him 32, 23 kind of from there, um, and he made some big plays kind of starting, starting with that loose ball right out there off the free throw line he had to dunk and thought thought he made some good defensive plays got some. Rebounds, you know, he ends up with 3 rebounds, 5 points in 7 minutes. So, uh, we were hoping not to have to play him. We did. Uh, I think you’ll be all right. We gotta get him *** bunch of rehab because we’re gonna for sure need them no matter which team plays here. They got *** lot bigger front court, uh, whether it’s Vander or Saint Mary’s, either one. Thanks, coach. Let’s go to questions for the student athletes first, please. Please raise your hand. We’ll start in the front row on the left side, and then we’ll go with the most. Chase Goodbread with the Tuscaloosa News. Mark, can you just speak to what Coach Epps mentioned about contributing in other ways, maybe than 3 pointers in *** game like this where you’ve got 10 assists, you knocked down 11 3 free throws and, and just got it done other ways. Yeah, you know, he, uh, just, uh, he always talked about finding ways to win, uh, when things are not going well and, uh, first half. Uh, things weren’t going well, so I just really, really trusting my teammates and I was just making the right read, uh, you know, trying to, uh, create open shots for my teammates, and then, uh, and then just kept, I kept playing the right way and then it just, the game, uh, repaid me back. Katie Central for Mark or just what kind of teammate is Grant? I saw him encouraging y’all throughout the game before he came in and that he was willing to, to step in, um, when the game got kind of close there. Grant, he’s *** teammate, um, you know, he always uplift us, you know, he’s one of the leaders, um, one of the seniors on the team, you know, um, you know, when things are not going well, Grant, he always speak up, you know, and that’s what we need on this team. Left row 3rd row. Joey, Associated Press. Mark and Mo, how much does tournament experience come into play, especially in *** first round game like this where there might be some adversity in the second half? Mark, we’ll start with you. Yeah, you know, uh, the game, uh, as it got down the wire, you know, the, uh, it started getting, uh, loud in there and, uh, uh, you know, we had *** lot of experience with that last year, so we, I, I think we showed our, uh, composure and resiliency of not getting too high, not getting too low, and we just stayed level-headed throughout the whole game. Mo, you wanna add to that? Um, yeah, we’ve been here before, um, you know, we’ve been in these positions all season and last year, um, you know, when adversity hits, oh he told us, you know, just stay together and stuff. So, you know, we’ve been here before, so we’ve seen, you know, we, we’ve seen this before, so yeah. Any other questions for the players before we let them go back to the locker room? OK, thanks, fellows, congratulations. We’ll continue on with the Q&A for Coach Oates. Please raise your hand. We’ll start in the 2nd row on the right side. Um, Julie Mitchell, WVTM 13 in Birmingham. Coach, you talked about before this tournament, your leaders needing to step up, show how bad they want to keep playing together for each other to see Grant say put me in, Mark, give you 19 in the second half. How, how big were your leaders today? No, they were huge. I mean, Mark kept saying like we’re, we’re not losing this game. Like guys, you’re playing like we’re playing tomorrow. There’s no game tomorrow if we don’t win. He kept saying it in the huddles, you know, and you could tell he had *** sense of urgency about him in the second half. I mean, he Got to the free throw line, you know, 3 wasn’t dropping, so he got in, he got fouled, he converted some, some tough layups. So I thought he played pretty hard on defense. I have them for granted. No, like, you know, plan wasn’t the plan, he said it wasn’t feeling all that great this morning, but I. You know, trainer Clark said he was gonna be available, but ideally we don’t play him well and *** lot closer than anybody anticipated they’re *** good team. They played hard, you know, we, we didn’t play as well as we’d hoped and Grant I was like we’re not going home like. Put me in. So those two guys have been through it. They’ve been to the Final Four before. They may want to make sure we’re still playing on Sunday and thought they stepped up big for us in the second half, both of them. Thanks, coach. 2nd row on the left side. Ashley Basstock Cleveland.com. Nate, I know you mentioned Dickerson in your opening, but, and I know yesterday you seemed prepared for him and well aware of what he could do and how he could alter *** game, I guess. Was he as advertised for you guys and what do you think was the difference down the stretch despite his output for you guys? Yeah, I mean. At 25 and 96 of those 9 were on the offensive board, so I mean hard playing, you know. We, uh, we didn’t do *** very good job, to be honest with you, keeping him off the glass, you know, he, he got some downhill drives, you know, he hit the, the 13. I mean, we kind of played him like *** 5 and kept our 5 on, so we ended up getting, he was 1 for 8 from 3, but. You know, everywhere else, I think it was like 10 or 14 from From 2 so we just, I, we didn’t do *** great job, but you gotta give him *** lot of credit. I mean, it’s *** hard playing athletic guy that gave everything he had, I mean. I got 2 daughters here, Jassie, my middle one. She’s like *** sweetheart, Dad, I feel so bad for the other team. He said 333 never came out of the game. He played so hard. I’m like, yeah, but somebody’s got loose didn’t need to be us. So she, she felt, she felt bad he had to play *** little game. It was nice for us. He finally did fall out, you know, he didn’t have much foul trouble and he picked up 3 there late, but man, he. He’s *** hard playing guy, so I got I got *** lot of respect for him. Keep on the left side in the front row and then we’ll go to the right. Chase Goodri with the Tuscaloosa News too, if I may. Coach, can you speak to the way you were able to score at the rim with the bigs, Diovan and Ammori were 16 out of 18 from the floor between them. And then the second question, can you tell us exactly what point in the game Nelson told you to put him in? 2 seconds before he went in, I like he stood up down there. So like, hey coach, I come on, put, put me in. I’m ready. I’m like, go. It wasn’t going well and I could see just by that look on his face lately you put me in. I’m gonna make some stuff happen. So I, I trust him. Been through *** lot of games with him. He’s won *** lot of games here. So yeah, and then I, I thought our front court did, did *** good job converting off the, you know, we ended up with 25 assists program record for the NCC tournament, so. You know, I felt like our pick and roll offense could get kind of get the roller behind their their ball string defense. I thought we did *** good job of that early, you know, we, we probably should have gone, stayed in it more. Marks kept just saying like playing more pick and rolls, get more pick and rolls that get, he did *** good job. I thought Barron did *** good job. You know, Barron has 8 assists, no turnovers. Marquez has 10 assists. You know, the two of them have 18 assists, 3 turnovers combined. That’s pretty good out of your two, starting guards. So you know, I thought they did *** good job finding the bigs. Cliff did *** great job finishing. Diabate did it as usual, does *** good job finishing both those guys are good finishers, but you know, we, we needed all those points, so. Uh, you know, it is more mowing or mowing the second half, cliff in the first half, but we needed both of them to play big for us. Back to the front row. Central and you talked in your opening about how they had 16 offensive boards compared to y’all’s 5. Just what are the bigs, the guards everyone gonna need to do on the glass moving forward if you’re gonna have success in the tournament? I mean, Vanderbilt plays hard. We played them before. They can get there and cause problems and Saint Mary’s is huge. In the interior like, like we gotta be better. I mean, I’m going through *** circle and everybody on the front court that had 0 boards like and there’s. You know I got 4 guys that play. 4 and 5 for the most part they came up with *** 0 tonight like like that that’s not good enough. We gotta do better and then on the other end, shoot, uh we got box out like we gotta go hit somebody when *** shot goes up and go get it. I mean this is stuff we’ve been stressing and we’re more than capable of when we played some of the best rebounding teams in the country. Houston, Texas A&M, Mississippi State’s been traditionally great on the glad we’ve all rebounded them, so we keep saying it. It’s like when we know we need to do it, we do it at *** high level. Why we tried to stress we need to do it tonight. We got all rebounded by Robert Morris, so you know these guys gotta step up every game because if we continue to let this happen, we we won’t be playing for too much longer. Second row coach on the right side. Colin Beasley Pittsburgh Post is that, was there anything Robert Morris did to surprise you guys? Like it, it, it seemed at some points like maybe your guys overlooked Robert Morris *** little bit. I mean, I would hope my our guys are mature enough not to overlook them, but I do agree with you that based on the energy when the game got tight in the second half and the energy previous to that, it wasn’t quite the same, and I think maybe jumping on on them early, getting up 10 right out of the gate, you know, maybe they thought it was gonna be easy. We, you try to tell them. I mean, I try to explain to them, I was in the Mac for 6 years. We went to 4 tournaments when I was there, 3 as *** head coach. I told them what our mentality was like they, they got nothing to lose. Like they’re out there playing. With house money, if you will, like, like they’re they’re playing free. You know, they’re letting it go, they’re they’re having fun like. Like we can’t let *** team, and we’re, we’re *** better team. We know that obviously, you know, we’re 2 seed or 15th, but better teams don’t always win if they don’t play harder than the other team. So we told them that. You know, I think Mark got *** sense of urgency about him. Shoot, they took the lead on us in the second half. I mean, with about 7 to go or whatever it was, so. You know, are you gonna give them *** lot of credit? I, I, I mean. We tried to tell our guys how good this team is and what, you know, there’s 15 speed 2s. Not just once or twice, multiple times, 16 teams that beat ones now it’s, uh, we gotta, we gotta come ready to go because the good thing is there won’t be anybody. Rank ranked lower at 10, I don’t think moving forward, uh, and all these guys, I mean, Saint Mary is *** really good team. We’ve already played Vandy. They played in the SEC, best conference in the country this year, so I, I hope we don’t overlook anybody. I, I disappointed with the effort at times. Proud of the guys for the effort there to close them out late, but yeah, I, I. I, I don’t wanna say we overlooked them, but it certainly looks like it with the effort at times in the game, especially on the, on the, uh, rebounding side of it. Coach, thanks for your time. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thanks, appreciate it.

All-America guard Mark Sears scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half and second-seeded Alabama pulled away late to escape 15th-seeded Robert Morris 90-81 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.Listen to Head Coach Nate Oats and the players above.The Colonials gave the Crimson Tide (27-8) all they could handle and even took their first lead at 65-64 on a layup by Josh Omojafo to bring the Rocket Arena crowd to its feet.Alabama responded behind Sears, who had seven points during an 11-2 surge that gave the Crimson Tide some breathing room against the Horizon League champions.Robert Morris (26-9) came in as a 22-1/2 point underdog, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, yet spent most of the afternoon threatening to author the first true bracket-buster of the tournament after a relatively quiet opening day on Thursday.Instead, the Crimson Tide gathered themselves to advance. Alabama will face either Saint Mary’s or Vanderbilt in the second round on Sunday. >> FOLLOW YOUR TEAMS: Sports coverage from WVTM 13Cleveland native Amarion Dickerson led the Colonials with 25 points, including a spectacular sequence in the second half in which the 6-foot-7 junior put together a series of athletic buckets that helped erase a 10-point deficit.How serious did it get? Alabama forward Grant Nelson, who was a game-time decision due to a knee injury, made his first appearance midway through the second half in hopes of finally putting the Colonials away.Nelson eventually did just that, throwing down a two-handed dunk with just over two minutes left that pushed Alabama’s lead back to double digits. Crimson Tide center Clifford Omoruyi had a season-high 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting, most of them dunks.>> FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube TakeawaysRobert Morris: The Colonials found their footing in their fifth season in the Horizon League behind longtime coach Andy Toole. The Penn graduate figures to have his name pop up in connection with a vacancy or two (his alma mater is looking for a coach), though the 44-year-old has stressed he’s content at a school where’s been a fixture since 2007.Alabama: The Crimson Tide did not panic late even as momentum and most of the capacity crowd turned against them. Sears shook off a shaky start and Nelson appeared to be just fine in his 7 minutes of work. Stay updated on the latest sports stories with the WVTM 13 app. You can download it here.Major momentsTake a look at the highlights from the game. The latest updates are at the top. FINAL SCORE: 90-81, AlabamaSECOND HALF RMU’s Amarion Dickerson fouls out of the game to cheers from his hometown.SCORE: 83-75, Alabama. TIME: 1:12 left SCORE: 78-68, Alabama. TIME: 2:35 After a review, the follow for Dickerson remained a common foul and not a flagrant foul. Alabama responds to take the lead back. SCORE: 66-65, Alabama. TIME: 6:14 left in the halfRMU takes the lead for the first time all game. SCORE: 65-64, RMU. TIME: 6:46 left in the halfSCORE: 62-58, Alabama. TIME: 8:36 left in the halfSCORE: 51-44, Alabama. TIME: 14:56 left in the halfAlabama dunks to make the first points of the second half. SCORE: 42-36. TIME: 19:02 left HALFTIME SCORE: 40-36, AlabamaFIRST HALFStevenson returns to the court with his left wrist taped up. SCORE: 34-29. TIME: 3:29 left in the half.SCORE: 28-21, Alabama. TIME: 7:04 left in the halfAlabama’s Jarin Stevenson is walked off the court into the locker room by the medical team for evaluation while clutching his left wrist He fell on it while shooting.Alabama continues to widen the lead. SCORE: 19-11, Alabama. TIME: 11:33 left in the half.SCORE: 5-2, Alabama. TIME: 15:54 left in the halfRobert Morris gets first points on the board. SCORE: 5-2, Alabama. TIME: 16:53 left in the half.Alabama puts first points on the board.BEFORE THE GAME

CLEVELAND —All-America guard Mark Sears scored 19 of his 22 points in the second half and second-seeded Alabama pulled away late to escape 15th-seeded Robert Morris 90-81 on Friday in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

Listen to Head Coach Nate Oats and the players above.

The Colonials gave the Crimson Tide (27-8) all they could handle and even took their first lead at 65-64 on a layup by Josh Omojafo to bring the Rocket Arena crowd to its feet.

Alabama responded behind Sears, who had seven points during an 11-2 surge that gave the Crimson Tide some breathing room against the Horizon League champions.

Robert Morris (26-9) came in as a 22-1/2 point underdog, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, yet spent most of the afternoon threatening to author the first true bracket-buster of the tournament after a relatively quiet opening day on Thursday.

Instead, the Crimson Tide gathered themselves to advance. Alabama will face either Saint Mary’s or Vanderbilt in the second round on Sunday.

>> FOLLOW YOUR TEAMS: Sports coverage from WVTM 13

Cleveland native Amarion Dickerson led the Colonials with 25 points, including a spectacular sequence in the second half in which the 6-foot-7 junior put together a series of athletic buckets that helped erase a 10-point deficit.

How serious did it get? Alabama forward Grant Nelson, who was a game-time decision due to a knee injury, made his first appearance midway through the second half in hopes of finally putting the Colonials away.

Nelson eventually did just that, throwing down a two-handed dunk with just over two minutes left that pushed Alabama’s lead back to double digits. Crimson Tide center Clifford Omoruyi had a season-high 17 points on 8-for-8 shooting, most of them dunks.

>> FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL: Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube

Takeaways

Robert Morris: The Colonials found their footing in their fifth season in the Horizon League behind longtime coach Andy Toole. The Penn graduate figures to have his name pop up in connection with a vacancy or two (his alma mater is looking for a coach), though the 44-year-old has stressed he’s content at a school where’s been a fixture since 2007.
Alabama: The Crimson Tide did not panic late even as momentum and most of the capacity crowd turned against them. Sears shook off a shaky start and Nelson appeared to be just fine in his 7 minutes of work.

Stay updated on the latest sports stories with the WVTM 13 app. You can download it here.