Texas
Everything Nate Oats said after No. 3 Alabama's win over Texas
Everything Nate Oats said after No. 3 Alabama’s win over Texas
Alabama coach Nate Oats spoke to reporters after the Crimson Tide’s 103-80 win over Texas on Tuesday. Alabama wrapped up a road trip with wins over Texas and Arkansas and will return to Tuscaloosa for its highly-anticipated clash against No. 1 Auburn on Saturday.
Here’s everything Oats said after the victory over Texas.
Opening statement
“This was a game — wish you could shoot it like this all the time. I mean, we shot almost 60% from 3, shot 62% from the field. So, we spend a lot of time in the gym but sometimes you get some open looks, you knock them down, it helps the game go the way you want.
“We had way too many turnovers again. That’s becoming a major issue with us. You’ve gotta give Texas a lot of credit. They got into us. They were physical with us. They forced some turnovers. I thought they played hard it’s just — we got Dioubate who I’m sure they chose to leave open goes 3 of 3 from 3. Jarin who we know can really shot it, but hasn’t shot it this well in a game yet this year, but he did make five 3s to send us to a Final Four last year when we beat Clemson in the Elite Eight.
“So he’s stepped up in big games before and had great shooting games. He ends up with a career-high. I think he’s been playing real physical, real aggressive, great defense. He was our matchup to start with on Tre Johnson who’s leading the league in scoring. I thought he did a pretty good job for the most part. I think he’s been locked into the right stuff. Really happy to see him have a great shooting game like he did tonight.”
“Really fortunate to get these two wins on the road trip — both Arkansas and here and now we got to lock in. We got a pretty tough stretch here these last seven games coming up.”
On his first impression playing in the Moody Center, Texas being hampered by injuries
“I thought the Moody Center was one of the best arenas, maybe the best in the SEC. It’s my first time in here. I thought it was great. They got the boxes up there. They made it so it’s small enough — what do they have 11,000? And if they want to make it bigger — I think it’s great. I thought it was a really good atmosphere tonight to be honest with you. We’re the No. 2 team in the country coming in here. They sold the place out I’m assuming. So, I thought it was good. I’m a big fan of the Moody Center.
“I’m not totally familiar with all the injuries. I know that [Tremon] Mark was out, but he played 37 minutes tonight. So I’m assuming he’s not injured anymore too much… I knew [Arthur] Kaluma had gone out. He didn’t start the second half, and he’s good. He only played 11 minutes so — obviously when you’re missing a starter and we’re dealing with it too — Wrightsell was one of the best shooters in the country. He’s out for the whole year with his Achilles. Houston Mallette leads the team in offensive leverage when he’s in, shot it well. He’s gonna end up having a redshirt on the year for his knees. Derrion Reid’s a McDonald’s All-American that’s been a contributor. He’s out for us.
“It’s definitely affected Texas I’m sure. I mean, shoot when Kaluma couldn’t come back there in the second half you’re missing a starter that you put your game plan together with and then he’s not in there. That’s tough. He’s a good player, but it’s also part of sports. We had three guys out that we planned on playing this year as well.”
On his strategy against Tre Johnson
“Look, Tre’s really good. Our thing with him was, again, he had a fairly efficient night to be honest with you, 9 of 17. He scored 24 points on 17 shots is pretty efficient. Not quite as efficient as Jarin, but Jarin’s not the focal point of everybody’s defense like Tre is. So our thing with him was like, we know he’s gonna get his shots up, we just need to make sure they’re tough, contested. He’s gonna make some. He’s not gonna make enough tough non-rim 2s to beat us. So, don’t let him get to the rim. Let’s run him off the 3-point line. We didn’t do a very good job of that at times. We gave up the 3 in the corner on the underneath out-of-bounds play. We gave up the 3 in transition where we didn’t get matched to him. There was a couple of 3s he got that we didn’t do a great job.
“But, we tried to make sure that they took as many non-rim 2s. I’m looking, we took six non-rim 2s and were 3 of 6. They took 20 and were 8 of 20. Looking at their percentage of shots — 10% of our shots were non-rim 2s and almost 30% of their shots were non-rim 2s. Our thing was, we knew they’d settle a little bit for that. So with Tre, we had some traps and some blitzes in that we needed. The problem was when we kinda came with the baseline trap and missed we were giving up offensive rebounds. So we decided we be better off just settling with him taking a tough, contested pull-up over one of our defenders and not giving up the O-boards because they almost doubled us in second-chance points which isn’t good. They had 13, we only had 7. If we cut out their second chance and our turnovers — they had 39 points, which was half of their points came off of our turnovers or second-chance points.
“So we were OK with Tre taking all the tough shots he wanted. We just, we said going in we gotta rebound and we gotta not turn the ball over. Well we turned it over too much and we didn’t do a good enough job rebounding. But the good thing for us, our offense was clicking pretty well tonight.
On team’s maturity, focus with a big game coming up and if Alabama is the best team in the country
“I mean, we’ll see Saturday who’s the best team in the country I guess. I do think we’ve got a mature group. They know they’ve prepared. We kinda get into it. The hay is in the barn if you will, going into one of these games. We know what we have to do. We don’t get upset if the other team gets some tough shots that we’re willing to give up. Now, the turnovers that was a little upsetting. We had so many rebounds we gave up, that was a little upsetting.
“But we try to be intense, like you said very intense. Play hard, give max effort. But we’re not trying to flip out over stuff. We come prepared. We know what we got to do. We get it done. We execute the game plan and we get out of here with a win.
“And do we think we’re the best team in the country? I think we got a chance to be, but Auburn’s the best team in the country right now and we gotta knock them out on Saturday if we want to claim to be the best team in the country.”
On how winning two road games gives him more confidence ahead of Auburn matchup
“I think it’s huge. We had our bye-game right in the middle. We had kind of a first nine games, last nine after the bye. Last nine we had five of them on the road, but started with a two-game road stand. So now we got seven that four of the seven are home. Only three of the seven are on the road. But I thought it was imperative that we get both these wins to stay in the hunt to win the league. We dropped the home one against Ole Miss which we just didn’t play very well and Ole Miss played very well.
Auburn dropped the home one fo Florida. So we’ve each dropped the home one. We each get each other still. We get a home and away with them, but road wins aren’t easy in this league, I mean at all. So, you saw it – Arkansas’ record isn’t great but shoot, that was a 3-point game with three minutes to go in the game up at Arkansas on Saturday.
“So, I think you’re gonna see some teams get upset. I didn’t see any of the final scores tonight from the first games. I saw Auburn was up 12 pretty late in the game last I saw. I’m assuming they won. Kentucky beat Tennessee? That was at Kentucky? Yeah, so there you go. Tennessee’s a really good team. I think the metrics, the metrics have Tennessee ahead of us and they go into Kentucky and that was a tough win for us to get at Kentucky and Tennessee loses at Kentucky. So, there’s no guarantee in road wins. I mean every — shoot South Carolina, I’m guessing they still don’t have a win but they played Auburn down to like two points I think. So, you go to a place like South Carolina that hasn’t been able to get a win, they’re still playing the best teams in the league really tough at their place.
“To get two road wins on this road trip is big for us. It gives us some confidence. We’ve played well on the road though. This is I think our eighth game in a row we’ve scored 85 on the road. So we tend to — we’ve got a veteran group. They tend to like the road for whatever reason. They like seeing the stands empty early when it can and they seem to embrace that villain role if you will going in and knocking some teams off on the road.
“So, I love this group, they play hard. It’s great to see some of these guys — you know Dioubate and Jarin shoot it really well tonight and contribute to a great offensive game for us.”
Texas
Glam influencer who drowned during Texas Ironman had battled flu but ignored pleas to ditch race
The glam influencer who drowned during a Texas Ironman swim had been battling the flu – but ignored pals who begged her to pull out of the brutal endurance race, according to one friend.
“She was ill before the trip, she wasn’t okay,” Luis Taveira said of close friend Mara Flávia, 38, who died during Saturday’s race in The Woodlands.
“My wife and I spoke with her to say she was too weak for this race, although a couple of days ago when we talked to her, she insisted she was okay,” Taveira said of the Brazil-born influencer, according to sports website the Spun.
“I still cannot believe what’s happened. She was ill because of the flu.”
Flávia continued “training hard” even while “weakened” by her illness, the friend said.
Just two days before the competition, Flávia shared a picture of herself in a pink swimming costume and cap sitting by the edge of a pool.
“Just another day at work,” she wrote in Portuguese.
Her Instagram account was peppered with snaps, showing her working out in a gym, by the pool, or running outdoors.
“Not every victory is photogenic, not every growth is pretty to watch. Sometimes evolving is being silent, stepping back, saying no, crying in the background, and coming back the next day more aware,” she said in one motivational post.
In others, she said that skill “only develops with hours and hours of work” and sport is “the best tool for transformation.”
The Ironman Texas competition features three legs — a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile run. The women’s event got underway just after 6:30 a.m. Saturday, with fire crews alerted around an hour later that there was a lost swimmer.
Flávia’s body was found around 9 a.m. in about 10 feet of water.
Officials have ruled her preliminary cause of death was drowning, and relatives have paid tribute.
Flávia’s sister, Melissa Araújo, said her sibling “lived life intensely” – and revealed a piece of her had vanished, People reported.
“You were always synonymous with determination, with courage — with a strength that seemed too vast to be contained within you,” she wrote on social media.
“You never did anything halfway; perhaps that is why you left such a profound mark on the lives of everyone who crossed your path.
“A piece of me is gone, and I will have to learn to live without it. And it hurts in a way I cannot even explain.
“It is a strange silence, a void I knew existed all along — as if the world itself had lost a little of its color.”
Flávia’s partner, Rodrigo Ferrari, described the swimmer as his “love” and said not waking up next to her was hard.
“Ursa, you were the best person I have ever met in my life,” he wrote in a note shared on social media.
A Brazilian fitness influencer has died after getting into difficulty during the swimming portion of an ironman event in Texas.
Mara Flavia Souza Araujo was reported as a “lost swimmer” around 7.30am at the Ironman Texas in Lake Woodlands near Houston on Saturday. According to KPRC 2 News, safety crews could not immediately locate Araujo. The 38-year-old’s body was discovered around 90 minutes later in 10ft of water by divers. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department confirmed her identity in a statement to NBC on Monday.
“MCSO can confirm that Mara Flavia Souza Araujo, 38, of Brazil died while competing in the Ironman event in The Woodlands on Saturday,” the sheriff’s department told NBC News. “Preliminary investigations indicate she drowned during the swimming portion of the event.”
Araujo was an experienced triathlete and had completed at least nine ironman events since 2018. She had more than 60,000 followers on Instagram and had posted about the importance of making the most out of life in the days before her death.
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“Enjoy this ride on the bullet train that is life,” she wrote in Portuguese. “And even with the speed of the machine blurring the landscape, look out the window – for at any moment, the train will drop you off at the eternal station.”
Organizers of the race expressed their condolences on Saturday.
“We send our deepest sympathies to the family and friends of the athlete and will offer them our support as they go through this very difficult time,” race organizers said in a statement on Saturday. “Our gratitude goes out to the first responders for their assistance.”
A glamorous triathlete who drowned during an Ironman competition in Texas shared a photo from a swimming pool during a final training session just two days before the tragic race.
Brazilian influencer Mara Flávia, 38, shared the shot of her on the edge of a pool on Thursday — two days before she vanished during an open-water swim in The Woodlands Saturday morning.
“Just another day at work,” Flávia, 38, wrote in Portuguese alongside the pic of her wearing a matching pink swimming costume and cap.
The influencer, who had more than 60,000 followers online, chose the Robin S track “Show Me Love” for her post with the hashtags “triathlon,” “swimming” and “triathlete.”
Flávia vanished during an open-water swim in The Woodlands Saturday morning – the first of three grueling trials that competitors face during the 140-mile race.
Fire crews were told about a “lost swimmer” at around 7:30 a.m., one hour into the pro-female swim, KPRC reported.
Rescuers battled challenging visibility conditions before Flávia’s body was pulled from the water just after 9:30 a.m.
Montgomery County Sheriffs confirmed that the victim “drowned while participating in the swim portion of the event,” according to a statement. The office said its Major Crimes unit will continue the investigation “per normal protocols.”
Shawn McDonald, a volunteer, recounted the commotion before the swimmer’s body was recovered.
The dad, who volunteered with his daughter Mila, 12, said a group of younger volunteers in a kayak raised a flag and blew their whistles, “yelling for help.”
“I heard them say she went under,” he wrote on Facebook.
“I had Mila hand me the paddle and I started calling out to the athletes around us to stop so I could cross. I made my way over in about 30 seconds.
“When I got there and asked what happened, they all said the same thing: She went under. Right here. Right below us. The panic and fear on their faces won’t leave me for a long time.”
The volunteer recalled how one man had a “thousand-yard stare” on his face – before diving into the water in a desperate bid to find Flávia.
“I dove in immediately and began searching. After about a minute underwater, I felt her body with my foot. I surfaced, took what seemed like the deepest breath I have ever taken and went back down. She was gone.”
Boats with sonar combed the area – and McDonald was told to leave the water before the body was recovered.
“The victim was found in about 10 feet of water on the bottom of the lake,” Buck said. “The dive team accessed the victim, brought her up about 9:37 and then brought her over to the shore where she was pronounced DOS [deceased on scene],” Palmer Buck, the Woodlands fire chief, said.
It’s not known what caused the triathlete to go under the water.
Journalism grad Flávia previously worked in radio and television before pursuing a sporting career at age 28.
She previously twice won the Brazilian Grand Prix, and finished third in the Brasilia triathlon event.
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