Nate Oats is a former math teacher, and he coaches like one. The unabashed numbers man has a stat for just about everything.
Take Alabama basketball’s biggest honor, for example. Following every game, Oats hands out a Hard Hat Award to the player with the most blue-collar points — a metric that measures charges drawn, floor dives and other hustle plays that don’t show up in the box score. If you can chart it, Oats will try to find a way to explain it through the Crimson Tide’s Bamalytics.
That’s what made Saturday's loss so frustrating to him.
Oats didn’t announce who earned No. 6 Alabama’s Hard Hat Award following its 79-76 loss at No. 5 Tennessee. However, he was quick to don a metaphorical dunce cap after his series of poor coaching decisions saw the Tide throw away a four-point lead in the final 36 seconds.
You won’t find those on the stat sheet either, but Oats was the first one to raise his hand when addressing how Alabama fumbled a chance to secure a valuable top-10 win on the road.
Oats played a key role in Alabama’s costliest turnover of the afternoon. Tied at 76 with 3.8 seconds to play, the Tide had a chance to win the game on an inbound from under its basket. However, Labaron Philon failed to find an open teammate fast enough, drawing a five-second violation that turned the ball over to Tennessee. Oats had an opportunity to bail out his freshman guard on the play but neglected to use one of his two remaining timeouts.
From there, the Volunteers pulled off one of the most dramatic finishes of the season, as Jahmai Mashak sunk a deep 3-point shot at the buzzer.
Alabama hearts were broken, and Oats’ hand immediately went up.
“I had the chance to call a timeout,” Oats said regarding the five-second violation. “Coaches can call timeouts so we can get another out-of-bounds play, and at four [seconds], I should have called it. I thought we were gonna get it in. It’s on me.”
Oats also pointed out a substitution error moments earlier that allowed Tennessee to get an offensive rebound on a missed free-throw, which ultimately resulted in the Volunteers tying the game with 30 seconds to play. He also wishes he would have drawn up a better plan to defend Tennessee on its game-winning possession.
“We work on end-of-game situations in practice. We expect our players to be good at it, and I was not good for the last 30 seconds today,” Oats said. “I feel like I failed these guys. For 39-and-a-half minutes, they outplayed [Tennessee].”
Oats’ decisions might have contributed to Alabama’s defeat, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any Tide player who felt failed by their head coach on Saturday. In fact, Oats’ postgame accountability proved quite the opposite.
Sure, this loss stings. Alabama’s defeat to Tennessee locked up an outright SEC regular-season title for Auburn. It could also put a dent in the Tide’s pursuit of landing a No. 1 seed, particularly if that decision comes down to Alabama and Tennessee. But March has only begun, and there’s still plenty of basketball yet to be played.
If this season is any indication, Oats’ postgame ownership should serve as a rallying point for the Tide. Accountability has been a theme for this year’s Alabama team.
After missing crucial free throws during Alabama’s loss to Ole Miss in January, Grant Nelson spent the following two days inside the gym fine-tuning his foul shot. That weekend, the graduate forward put up 25 points and 11 rebounds while sinking 9 of 10 shots from the line during the Tide’s 102-97 win at Kentucky.
Oats famously sat Mark Sears for the second half of last month’s win over LSU. The star responded by putting in an “unbelievable” effort in practice before recording 17 points, nine assists and six rebounds during an 88-84 win at Mississippi State. Oats also challenged Sears following the loss against Auburn. Since then, the guard has piled up 110 points over his last four games, including 24 on Saturday.
Alabama will need a similar answer this week as it wraps up regular-season play with a home game against No. 3 Florida and a trip to top-ranked Auburn. I’m betting on Oats and his resilient bunch to answer the call.
Drink of the Week — Passion Pal
March is here, which means the madness is just beginning on the hardwood. It also marks the changing of the month and a new cocktail for a cause from our friends at Session Cocktails in Tuscaloosa.
This month, Session will be supporting Best Buddies through a cocktail named Passion Pal. A percentage of proceeds from the drink will be donated to the organization, which is dedicated to establishing a global volunteer movement for relationships and opportunities for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Passion Pal is comprised of 2 ounces of Vodka, 2 ounces of soda water, .75 ounces of passion fruit syrup, .75 ounces of lime juice and .25 ounces of ginger syrup. It’s a sweet drink with an even sweeter cause. Stop by and pick one up next time you are in town.
Cheers!
(Commercial break: My drink of the week section is now sponsored by my friends at Session Cocktails in Tuscaloosa. Session has been a mainstay in Tuscaloosa’s cocktail scene since 2019 and offers some of the tastiest drinks in town. Stop by and tell them I said hi!)
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