Ad Disclosure
Bruce Pearl vs. Nate Oats – who would you rather have the next 5 years?
By David Wasson
Published:
There were plenty of interesting subplots surrounding last week’s monumental/inconsequential (your mileage may vary…) Iron Bowl of Basketball – as No. 1 Auburn marched into Tuscaloosa and took down No. 2 Alabama at home to solidify its place atop the bracketology pantheon.
For at least a couple weeks, anyway.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide are set to play yet again on March 8, this time in Auburn in what most certainly will feel like Round 2 of what could well be a 4-round slugfest that includes an SEC Tournament title game and perhaps even a Final Four finale. So forgive anyone for not thinking Auburn’s 94-85 victory was a statement on much of anything besides who was the better team on Feb. 15.
Instead of looking 6 weeks ahead to the first weekend in April, the question we are forwarding for consideration here is this: Starting today, which coach would you rather have for the next 5 years – Auburn’s Bruce Pearl or Alabama’s Nate Oats?
Even with all the victories and championships on their glittering résumés, both Pearl and Oats have enough baggage with them that they’d have to check in instead of carry on at the airport.
Pearl is 14 years older than Oats, and has 1 more national championship ring (albeit a Division II ring earned at Southern Indiana at 1995) than Oats can boast. He was the second-fastest coach to 300 Division I victories, hitting the milestone at 382 games (Roy Williams only needed 370 at Kansas).
After Southern Indiana, Pearl made his bones at Milwaukee – where he knocked off Alabama in en route to a Sweet 16 in 2005. That earned him the Tennessee job, where he guided the Vols to 145 wins, a pair of Sweet 16 appearances and an Elite Eight run, but also an NCAA investigation that earned a 3-year “show cause” penalty.
Out of basketball for 3 seasons, Pearl’s show cause penalty wasn’t even complete when Auburn brought him in prior to the 2014 season. After 3 seasons near the SEC cellar, Pearl turned the Tigers around in 2017-18 with a 26-8 record. But that was just prelude to the 2018-19 season, which saw Auburn catch fire in March en route to the Final Four and finish with a 30-10 mark.
But again, trouble seemed to find Pearl – as an assistant coach was investigated by the FBI on corruption and bribery charges in 2017, and Pearl refused to cooperate in Auburn’s internal probe.
Pearl’s Tigers continued their upward ascent in recent seasons, reaching No. 1 for the first time in 2022. And Auburn’s 2024-25 heater has been potentially historic – with a 23-2 record and the No. 1 ranking now for 6 straight weeks. Pearl has secured 233 of his 695 career victories at Auburn and is the winningest coach in school history.
Oats, on the other hand, is just 50 and earned his first bona fides not in lower-level college basketball but instead the high school ranks – teaching math and coaching at Romulus High School in Michigan for 11 seasons before heading to Buffalo first as an assistant and then the Bulls’ head coach.
At Buffalo, Oats won 96 games in 4 seasons and led his squads to 3 NCAA Tournament appearances as automatic qualifiers out of the Mid-American Conference. Oats’ 32-4 finish in 2018-19 was enough for Alabama to pluck Oats out of northern New York to replace Avery Johnson.
Following a 16-15 season in 2019-20, Oats elevated Alabama to national prominence with a pair of Sweet 16 runs in 2020-21 and 2022-23 – the latter season seeing the Crimson Tide earn the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
But 2023-24 was Alabama’s crowning basketball achievement, as they swept through the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed en route to the program’s first Final Four appearance. But success also came with negative headlines and criticism of Oats, as player Darius Miles was charged with capital murder after an off-campus incident resulted in a shooting death that also involved superstar Brandon Miller. The latter was never arrested or charged, though testimony in Miles’ case indicated that Miller brought a firearm to Miles earlier that evening before Miles used it in the killing.
Oats has 14 years on Pearl, though Pearl has won at a slightly better clip (72.3 percent to Oats’ 70.1 percent). They both have made Final Four runs, are stellar recruiters, and get it done despite having to face each other twice a season in what has become the hottest intrastate rivalry in the country. Pearl is a seemingly more emotional coach, while Oats relies on a small army of data analysts to help the Crimson Tide squeeze the most out of every possession and game.
Who do you want more in the next 5 years – Pearl or Oats? Can either ever truly shake the demons that have wafted around them to crack the code and win a national championship? And if it’s possible that both can get their teams to that One Shining Moment, which one would you want running your program?
An APSE national award-winning writer and editor, David Wasson has almost four decades of experience in the print journalism business in Florida and Alabama. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and several national magazines and websites. He also hosts Gulfshore Sports with David Wasson, weekdays from 3-5 pm across Southwest Florida and on FoxSportsFM.com. His Twitter handle: @JustDWasson.
