Shortly after having his latest contract extension approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, Nate Oats spoke with the media Friday morning. Here’s everything the head basketball coach said about his new deal.
On his extension
“I got the extension done. I’m super excited. I didn’t want to leave here. I’ve got a freshman. Lexi’s a freshman here, Jocie’s in eighth grade, Brielle’s in fifth grade. We’ve moved enough. We wanted to be here. Greg [Bryne’s] been a great boss to root for, unbelievable. Dr. [Stuart] Bell’s a great president to work for. The board’s been super supportive all the way down. We’ve wanted to stay here. We’re having a successful season. It’s great to have the players we have.
“The extension’s done. We’re not going anywhere. We didn’t want to go anywhere, so that just puts to rest all those rumors. It helps in recruiting. It helps bring some stability to the program, and we can get back to concentrating on basketball games.”
On how much his family has grown to love Tuscaloosa
“This is Year 4 here, so we came after Lexi’s freshman year [of high school] which is a hard time to move. They’ve really grown to like it. They’ve got friends here. Lexi’s a freshman here, super involved in her sorority in different things. The like it. Tuscaloosa’ a nice area to raise a family, too. I’d like to be here a while. Brielle’s in fifth grade, she’s still pretty young, so we’re trying to hand out here for a long time.”
On the importance of getting a new basketball arena following his extension
Greg and I are on the same page on this. We both know it’s a high priority. The department’s fully behind it. You can’t snap your fingers and it’s done though. Greg’s working with President Bell and he Board of Trustees. I’ve talke to different members of the board. They all know the importance of it. We’re all on the same page, to be honest with you. We’ve had a number of donors give already to it, but we need more to give. That’s where it’s basically at. Inflation took the production cost, Greg said it was almost a quarter of a billion dollars to build the thing last week.
“We’ve got to get the money raised, but fans have been super passionate about it. Look, I’ll say this — hopefully all the rest of our games are sold out the rest of the year. We’re getting great support in here. I’ve said it before, the arena’s a bigger deal for the fans, the donors, the the people who watch the game than it is for the players and coaches that coach in it. We’ve obviously proven we can keep the program at a pretty high level here.
“But it 100% a priority for Greg, myself, the entire athletic department and the university as a whole. They’re working on getting it done, but it’s a process. They’re not putting shovel in the ground next week that I know of. So we’re going to keep working on it. I know Greg is working really hard on it.”
On dealing with coaching rumors on the recruiting trail and possible advances from other schools
That’s the one good thing with having an agent is I don’t take any calls from any other schools. And I basically told my agent to get it worked out here. I don’t want to going anywhere. I don’t know if anybody called him. He didn’t let me know if they did. So we really didn’t have any talks with anybody else, to be honest with you. There’s not that many jobs open right now anyway.
“It was more, we’re in social media days, so everyone wants to put theri two cents in out there. People try to use it against you in recruiting. It’s obviously been brought up in recruiting — ‘Is he going to be there or not?’ I’ve been asked that by recruits. The answer is real easy now. I’m not going anywhere. The buyout’s big for a reason because I don’t plan on leaving anywhere. I was a high school teach not too long ago. I’m not paying a $12 million buyout.
“We’re here. It’s a statement that we’re here. We’ve built this thing, we plan on continuing to build this thing moving forward. I’d like to continue to bring in top-10 recruiting classes. This is a statement we’re going to be here with them the entire time they’re here.”
On staying locked in despite a bigger contract
That’s a good point. I love working for Greg. Greg and I actually had some discussion about coaches in general out there. I haven’t been one who is motivated by money. If I was motivated by money, I would have quit coaching a long time ago when I was making $4,500 as the basketball coach at Romulus [High School], putting 40-50 hours outside of teaching to coach.
“I coach because I love coaching. I love working with the guys. It is nice to be compensated for it, finally. There’s a lot of high school coaches out there that put in the hours I put in that aren’t compensated for it like I am.
“I hope it doesn’t change me. I don’t plan on letting it change me. I’ll say this — we said it in Buffalo when we were debating to leave or not. There’s coaches that make a lot of money at this level that go home miserable every single night because they’re losing. The money they’re making doesn’t really make them happy. It’s a lot easier job when you’re winning games. I’m motivated by giving our players the best chance they can to win the game by by helping them achieve their goals and dreams.
“Like I said, it’s nice to be compensated for it, but the money doesn’t really make you happy when you go home at night. If you go home a loser at night, you’re still miserable. So we’re going to be extra motivated to win because it’s a lot more fun during the season when you’re winning games and the players are playing well and achieving their dreams as well."
On reflecting on his road from a high school coach to now
“Ten years ago I was still coaching high school, trying to figure out how to win a state championship in 2013. For a couple minutes you get to reflect and you hear from some former high school assistants, former high school players. You’re name gets in the news for a day or two, and they hit you up. You’ve got good memories of the time you spent as a high school coach. I love those guys. I love my former assistants, former players at Romulus, the teachers and everybody back there. It gives you good memories about what you were able to achieve with those kids
“Coaching’s not that much different. There’s more exterior pressure put on you at this level. The stakes are higher. At the end of the day, you’ve got to have great relationships with your players. They need to want to play for you. You’ve got to build a game plan in and out. There’s a lot of similarities to it, it’s just not as out there in the media.
“To be honest with you, I think about it all the time, when you’re a high school coach you don’t get scrutinized nearly at the same level you do here. You get to experiment with a lot more stuff. I was able to really form my foundation how I wanted to coach, kind of experiment how I wanted to do things. I pressed one year every single possession. OK, didn’t really like that, opened the floor a little bit. There’s a lot of things you figure out as a high school coach. It was fun doing it. It gave me a lot of experience as a head coach for 11 years there. I have fond memories of that. At different times in your life you get to reflect on them. This is one of them.”
