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Nate Oats explains what makes this Alabama team the best one he’s coached
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Nate Oats was asked during his meeting with reporters in Birmingham on Wednesday if he thinks this Alabama team is the best team he’s taken into the NCAA Tournament.
“Yeah, I do,” he replied.
The Crimson Tide (29-5) enter first-round play at the NCAA Tournament with the No. 1 overall seed in the field. They won both the regular-season and tournament titles in the SEC. They’ve won 7 of their last 8 heading into The Big Dance. And in spite of all of the off-court, they’ve just continued to pummel whoever steps on the other side of their court.
Alabama won each of its 3 games at the SEC Tournament by double-digits. Hard to say a team that has been playing as well as Alabama has all year is “peaking” now, but the Tide certainly seem to be in good shape at the outset of the tourney.
Oats explained why after Alabama’s first practice and interview session at Legacy Arena.
“I think we have a maturity about us, a camaraderie, a cohesiveness,” he said. “The chemistry is great. There’s literally nobody jealous about anybody else on this team, which is rare at this level. And the talent level is high. So, you know, the more you guys get to know our group, I think the more you are going to love them because they really are truly genuinely concerned about their teammates, and they love each other.
“The group we had 2 years ago I thought was prime, too. But we shot 12-of-25 from the free-throw line against UCLA and lost in overtime. We win that game, who knows what happens from there? We had a pretty good group 2 years ago. This group is similar, but they are definitely different. I know we’re younger, but I don’t think youth means immature. We have a lot of younger mature guys. Noah Clowney, Brandon Miller, Jaden Bradley, Rylan. All 4 of those freshmen are really mature. And I like the maturity of this group. And, like I said, just the chemistry of this group is really tight and really close.”
What that means once the tournament gets underway and the pressure turns up on the Tide remains to be seen. Alabama has won multiple games at a single tournament just once in the last 18 seasons. Oats himself has only done it once in his 7 previous seasons as a head coach.
Alabama gets rolling on Thursday at 2:45 p.m. ET on CBS.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
