Alabama Basketball: Nate Oats quietly recruiting program linchpins

There is plenty of buzz about Alabama basketball and the new recruits being pursued by Nate Oats. Oats is also making some quieter, but key moves.

Alabama basketball head coach and his new Crimson Tide staff have sprinted to Tuscaloosa and onto the national recruiting trail. The pace has been impressive, as has the quality of young men Oats is considering for the 2020, 2021 and 2022 recruiting classes.

Plus, there is unfinished work with the 2019-20 roster. Oats may have only one roster spot left for next season’s roster. He is keeping several options open. He may or may not be waiting for Trendon Watford to make a decision. Watford delayed his previously scheduled announcement from Apr. 20 to ‘who knows when.’ Several Alabama basketball insiders are convinced the 5-Star, instate player will choose Memphis or LSU.

Yes, that LSU, whose newly reinstated head coach brags about “strong-a__ed offers” to bag recruits. Offers that most everyone not wearing purple and gold believe had nothing to do with tuition, course fees, books and room and board.

Trendon Watford is a very good player.  Watford may prefer to play with his buddies at Memphis or his more recent, good friend, Will Wade. Nate Oats is prepared to win with him or without him. We hope, in Nick Saban fashion, Oats has told the young man just that.

Some of the other player’s Oats is pursuing can be reviewed here.

Oats already closed on two needed program components

As he should, Nate Oats pretty much did a complete rebuild of the Alabama basketball staff. A long-needed change was made by adding Mike Snowden as strength and conditioning coach. Previous Oats’ assistants, Brian Hodgson and Charlie Henry will be new Tide assistant coaches.

With exits of other staff members who accepted new positions with John Brannen, now at Cincinnati or John Pelphrey at Tennessee Tech, the lone returnee is Antoine Pettway.

Pettway is in his 14th season as a college assistant coach, most of which has been spent in Tuscaloosa. He is recognized as one of the best recruiters in the nation.

After quickly deciding to retain Pettway, Nate Oats had to re-recruit him. When former Alabama basketball assistant John Brannen left his head coach position at Northern Kentucky to take the head job at Cincinnati, he tried to hire Pettway. The offer was as the top Cincy assistant, with a title upgrade and reportedly, a significant increase in pay for Pettway.

Oats and Pettway have not commented publicly, but early insider buzz was Pettway would accept the offer. Apparently, Nate Oats persuaded Antoine it will be more career-enhancing to remain in Tuscaloosa. If it is truly a done-deal Pett is staying, Oats held on to an important program component going forward.

Another former Alabama basketball player is joining Oats’ staff. Andrew Steele is returning to Tuscaloosa and is expected to step in as Director of Player Personnel. Steele, much like Pettway, is admired and respected across the state of Alabama. Since his playing days, he has been on the basketball staffs at South Alabama and Troy. For two years, he was also head coach at John Carroll High School in Birmingham.

Steele played in 94 games during his Crimson Tide career. He was a smart player with basketball savvy beyond the norm for a college player.

In the title of the post, we described these two young men as program linchpins. Literal linchpins keep things from falling apart. Pettway and Steele have that kind of ability to, like glue, help hold things together in the Alabama basketball program.

Check in with Bama Hammer often. The Nate Oats pace is brisk but we try to keep up with all the roster possibilities.