News Article: Alabama Hires Nate Oats From Buffalo

deliveryman35

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Folks that went to the REC scrimmage the other day said Oats is very impressive. Said he made statements that basically went like “ We have a lot of talent on this team that lost their confidence”, and “ winners are made in June, July, and August in the gym, and we are going to be in the gym every day”.
He’s talking the talk, can he walk the walk? We’ll find out in about two years.
 

imauafan

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Folks that went to the REC scrimmage the other day said Oats is very impressive. Said he made statements that basically went like “ We have a lot of talent on this team that lost their confidence”, and “ winners are made in June, July, and August in the gym, and we are going to be in the gym every day”.
This is SO true. I have a gut feeling that we struck gold with Coach Oats.
 

bamacon

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I didn’t say this four years ago because I didn’t want to appear negative. But I didn’t really get the Johnson hire. He had zero college coaching experience. He had early success in the NBA but got fired rather quickly and completely flopped at his second job. He seemed to come out of nowhere to get the job when the Marshall deal failed.



While I understand supporting your coach, I thought some of the boasting about him to be way over the top. Even after two mediocre years with one and done in the NIT, everyone still thought he was going to lead us to the promised land. We did win an NCAA game last year, but if Sexton doesn’t make that shot in the SECT, I think it is another trip to the NIT or Dayton at best.

I am sad it didn’t work out, but not surprised.


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It was a BAD attempt to compete with the ONE and DONE super Freshmen teams like Duke and UK. IT FAILED
 

imauafan

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It was a BAD attempt to compete with the ONE and DONE super Freshmen teams like Duke and UK. IT FAILED
We originally tried to hire Gregg Marshall so I don't think it was out intention to become a "one-and-done" program. After we wasted too much time on Marshall and the other options that we could have hired were snatch up by other schools we had to hire whoever was available and CAJ was available. It was a risky move that didn't pay off but it had the potential to pay off big time. I had my doubts about him at the time but I was willing to give him a chance to show what he could do. The first season he took a roster that was pretty bad and had them in contention for a NCAA tourney pick. We had our usual February collapse which cost us a bid but it was fairly impressive what he did with that team. Recall that Dazon was having a pretty good true freshman season as the PG until he broke his leg. Retin stepped up and became the leader and carried us on his back as much as he could. The second season might have been a less talented team than year 1 and it too was getting talk about a NCAA tourney invite until the February collapse. At that point I thought he was exceeding expectations although the late season collapses were a concern. The 3rd season was when the expectations started going up mainly due to the recruiting class he was bringing in including Colin Sexton. It was apparent that 3rd year that leadership by the upperclassmen was an issue. Riley Norris was injured nearly the entire year. Key was injured early on and never really got on track when he returned after the Arizona game. That was a very talented team that was led by a freshman. It should have been better than it was and had to rely on a miracle buzzer beater by Sexton to get into the NCAA tourney. I had unbuckled at that point when we had lost 5 straight to close the season. It was obvious to me at that point that CAJ was not a college coach and 3 years in the same mistakes were repeating over and over without being corrected. I don't have to discuss year 4 because we all saw what happened.
 

bamacon

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Love this...

“There’s no other place you leave for from here,” Oats said. “You get it rolling here, you just stay here and keep building it. You don’t have to keep moving. I didn’t want a stepping stone. You come here, you stay here for as long as you can keep this thing winning and just keep it rolling.”


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BamaMoon

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“We’ve got some really good athletes,” Oats said. “We’ve got to do a lot of work on their skill development because we’re going to play basically four out, one in and we played even a lot of five out. Our centers could shoot three back there, so we’ve got a lot of work cut out if we’re going to get to that level on some of them. I think we’re going to start with the four out
.

I love this plan. But it takes shooters to play like this and I think that's what we'll see more of. Seems like Grant and Avery leaned more to the "athlete" but I believe CNO realizes the need to have more "shooters" on his roster...even a 5 that can shoot the 3.

BTW, this reminds me of something I heard Coach K say to his Duke players. He basically wants every one of them to be able to shoot the 3 and that only comes with tons of shooting after hours.
 

B1GTide

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Love this...

“There’s no other place you leave for from here,” Oats said. “You get it rolling here, you just stay here and keep building it. You don’t have to keep moving. I didn’t want a stepping stone. You come here, you stay here for as long as you can keep this thing winning and just keep it rolling.”


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Sounds good, but I don't believe it.
 

CajunCrimson

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Love this...

“There’s no other place you leave for from here,” Oats said. “You get it rolling here, you just stay here and keep building it. You don’t have to keep moving. I didn’t want a stepping stone. You come here, you stay here for as long as you can keep this thing winning and just keep it rolling.”


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You don't use the word "rolling" that many times and not know what you are doing ;)
 

BAMAVILLE

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Sounds good, but I don't believe it.
I agree, its a good sentiment but definitely a weird statement to make this early. I guess that's his way of saying he's committed to making this a successful program. He would be right in the fact that if he made this a winning program there's no reason to go anywhere else. Kind of like Coach K and Duke. Time will tell though.
 

CajunCrimson

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Agreed. If Kentucky, UCLA, any good program with better talent than Alabama... hell go... or he'll go to NBA if he does well within 2 or 3 years.

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Maybe....but if you can go to Bama and be the "best ever" -- why not stay? You can do things there that have never been done at the school. You can also be the best ever in college basketball -- and be at Bama. You have everything you need there to do it.

I just don't think coaching in the NBA is like coaching in the NFL. NBA head coaches are often looked at as jokes. Other than Pops in San Antonio -- who else currently gets any type of respect as being a great coach?
 

JustNeedMe81

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Maybe....but if you can go to Bama and be the "best ever" -- why not stay? You can do things there that have never been done at the school. You can also be the best ever in college basketball -- and be at Bama. You have everything you need there to do it.

I just don't think coaching in the NBA is like coaching in the NFL. NBA head coaches are often looked at as jokes. Other than Pops in San Antonio -- who else currently gets any type of respect as being a great coach?
Ask Brad Stevens with Boston.



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Padreruf

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.

I love this plan. But it takes shooters to play like this and I think that's what we'll see more of. Seems like Grant and Avery leaned more to the "athlete" but I believe CNO realizes the need to have more "shooters" on his roster...even a 5 that can shoot the 3.

BTW, this reminds me of something I heard Coach K say to his Duke players. He basically wants every one of them to be able to shoot the 3 and that only comes with tons of shooting after hours.
This was Duke's achilles heel and everyone knew it...they were streaky and that didn't work against a talented and experienced team like MSU. I hope/trust that NO has a plan to teach our athletes how to make shots under pressure.
 

BamaMoon

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Maybe....but if you can go to Bama and be the "best ever" -- why not stay? You can do things there that have never been done at the school. You can also be the best ever in college basketball -- and be at Bama. You have everything you need there to do it.

I just don't think coaching in the NBA is like coaching in the NFL. NBA head coaches are often looked at as jokes. Other than Pops in San Antonio -- who else currently gets any type of respect as being a great coach?
Basically, that's what some are saying about Dabo at Clemson. Everything he does right now is "historic" because he's the best they've ever had. Some say, "Why would he leave there, as King, and come to Bama to walk in the shadows of CPB and CNS."

Only time will tell if CNO turns it around and becomes a hot commodity in the coaching circles.

One thing that could make him stay is if he and his family fall in love with Alabama, the culture, the campus etc. and decide to make history here. Again, only time will tell.
 

Rama Jama

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Player development is what we've been missing. Most thought Coach Johnson would be able to develop a PG at the highest level since he won a championship as one himself, but clearly he was not able to impart that knowledge to the kids. So far, coach Oats appears to have identified the player individual weaknesses and will begin working on them immediately. Petty needs to work on dribbling and be retaught correctly and Herb Jones needs to work on his shooting. I'd say we need to work on rebounding and blocking out as a team. We have the nucleus of a really good team, but they need to develop basic fundamentals 1st. We also need at least 1 more PG.
 
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KrAzY3

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I remember my first high school practice. Some guys were puking, I think some guys quit. But, fast forward and I remember a game on the freshman team were I was really thirsty at halftime, then I realized I hadn't come out of the game. Conditioning helps...

It was a BAD attempt to compete with the ONE and DONE super Freshmen teams like Duke and UK. IT FAILED
Alabama still has to try to get some of those guys. Kira Lewis comes close to it, Sexton was one and done and Alabama went to the NCAA tournament with him. The idea that was the part that failed isn't true in my opinion. Aiming low is a bad long term strategy.
 

Rama Jama

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I remember my first high school practice. Some guys were puking, I think some guys quit. But, fast forward and I remember a game on the freshman team were I was really thirsty at halftime, then I realized I hadn't come out of the game. Conditioning helps...


Alabama still has to try to get some of those guys. Kira Lewis comes close to it, Sexton was one and done and Alabama went to the NCAA tournament with him. The idea that was the part that failed isn't true in my opinion. Aiming low is a bad long term strategy.
It has been one of my complaints for a while that we just were not in shape. We were worn out after halftime and it showed. I don't believe we can build a consistent winner here with one and done kids , and on top of that, they will be going away. The NBA will be letting high school kids go into the developmental G league and some will choose that route. Some will choose to come to school though. Zion Williamson was not supposed the be the phenom he has become which means some kids will choose to go to school as well. We need a team to play together as Auburn has done this year. Almost all of their players have been together at least 2 years if not 3.

We need to remember Rome wasn't built in a day either. We should be better next year and there is nothing wrong with expecting to be in contention for the tourney, but give Coach Oats time. I think his expectation is championships so lets give him time to build us to that level.
 

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