Nate Oats was announced as the head coach of Alabama basketball in March 2019 after a successful tenure as the head coach at the University of Buffalo.
Oats spent four years with the Buffalo Bulls, leading them to three NCAA Tournament appearances and a final AP ranking at No. 15 in his last year with the program. Before Oats’ time with the program, Buffalo had only made the NCAA Tournament one time.
Buffalo is also where he began to implement a “blue-collar” work ethic and helped create a hard-working mentality by encouraging players to strive to earn a construction helmet after the game.
The hard hat is given to the player who earns the most “blue-collar points” during the game. Players can earn these points with deflections, blocks, steals, rebounds, floor dives and charges.
“We do whatever we can to make the players feel special,” Oats said in 2019. “But in return we’re gonna demand a lot out of them. I think we’ve done a really good job building relationships with guys.”
After finishing the 2018-19 season with a 32-4 record with the Bulls and an exit in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Oats was hired at Alabama.
Oats inherited an Alabama program that had only ever made the Elite Eight once and a limited history of AP poll and NCAA Tournament appearances.
Within the previous 10 years of Oats being hired, Alabama only appeared in the AP poll two of those seasons, in 2010-11 and 2017-18.
Those were also the two years the Crimson Tide made the NCAA Tournament, but both teams lost in the second round.
Since Oats began in Tuscaloosa, he has already accounted for six NBA draft picks. That ties the number of players Alabama saw drafted from 2000 to 2019.
Between 2000 and 2019, the highest points per game average for a season was 76.7 in 2000-01. Since 2020 under Oats, the lowest points per game average has been 79.5.
Athletic director Greg Byrne said in February that Oats had surpassed his expectations.
“To have the last six SEC Championships, between regular season and postseason or tournament? Four of the last six have come to the University of Alabama. That’s remarkable,” Byrne said. “He has done an incredible job leading our program. We want him to be the coach for a long time.”
On March 15, Oats signed a contract extension with Alabama. His salary increased to $5 million, making him among the top 10 highest-paid college basketball coaches.
Following the team’s Final Four appearance last season, he has shown no sign of slowing down with his accomplishments. Oats has hit the recruiting trail hard, having already brought in two top-five classes.
AJ Dybantsa is ranked as the No. 1 recruit nationally and took his first official visit to Alabama in September to watch the team play Georgia in football. Dybansta said that part of the reason he is still considering Alabama is because of Oats.
Alabama currently has the No. 10-ranked class for 2025, which consists of two 4-stars, London Jemison and Amari Allen.
This all comes after Oats managed to sign the No. 3 class for 2024, consisting of four transfers and four recruits out of high school.
The fresh faces came in and made an immediate impact in Game 1. Transfers and freshmen combined for 52 of the Crimson Tide’s 110 points on Monday night.
Fans can catch the Crimson Tide in action again on Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN+.
