Alabama Basketball: Nate Oats now teaching others, learned from Rick Pitino

Alabama Basketball: There is more than a casual relationship between Nate Oats and Rick Pitino, whose ideas have changed the sport of college basketball.

While a teenager, studying the game he loved, Alabama basketball coach, Nate Oats learned from Rick Pitino. Oats watched instructional videos that explained how Pitino had revolutionized the college game.

Ironically, one of the casualties of that revolution was the 1987 Alabama basketball team. Pitino’s 1987 Providence Friars took on Wimp Sanderson’s Crimson Tide in the NCAA Tournament. Alabama Basketball was a heavy favorite. What happened marked a turning point in college basketball offense.

The Friars were led by, later to become Florida Head Coach, Billy Donovan and Indiana transfer, Delray Brooks. The Providence pair took 17 shots in the game and scored 49 points. Donovan scored 26 points with seven field-goal attempts and 10 free throws. He missed one of each.

After the game, the Tide’s leading scorer, Jim Farmer explained what Donovan did,

"He`s so tough because when he penetrates, you have to help off your man,. Then he kicks it back outside three-point range for Brooks and the others"

Alabama basketball fans will notice Nate Oats uses the exact same ‘dribble-penetrate-kick’ scheme as a key component of his offense. A big reason why Donovan had 10 assists in the game is those ‘kick-out’ passes went to teammates for wide-open shots.

Coupled with a smothering defense that pressed and denied entry passes to the Tide’s Derrick McKey, the Friars’ game plan befuddled the Crimson Tide. The rest of the college basketball world noticed and the game was never the same.

The impact Nate Oats is currently having on college basketball is similar. Pete Thamel asked stat expert Ken Pomeroy to comment on how Oats was affecting the college basketball mindset. Pomeroy said,

"If they go to the Final Four or win the whole thing, it’s going to revolutionize the way a bunch of coaches think about it"

According to Pomeroy “there are about 20 college coaches who’d prefer to play with the same statistical devotion as Oats.” He predicts a deep run by the Tide could push that number past 100.

Pomeroy believes the Oats offensive system, driven by pace of play, works so well because it is married to intense defense.

"They’re a very uptempo team that’s very good defensively. That confuses a lot of people. On a per-possession basis, they’re very good."

Though no doubt, unintentional, Oats and Pitino have something else in common. Both are bold, brash guys, primed to be confrontational whenever it is needed. Pete Thamel described the Alabama basketball coach,

"Oats is hardly the bookish mold of a stereotypical math teacher. He’s emerged as a blunt-force personality"

There will be neither a battle of coaching strategies or a personal bout between Oats and Pitino that decides Saturday afternoon’s game. Both men will leave an imprint on the game, but their players will determine the outcome. In that, Oats has more in hand than does Pitino. An Iona upset would be more shocking than the Providence upset in 1987. In the classic setting of the venerated Hinkle Fieldhouse, the connection between the coaches makes the game special.

Wondering about the final score in that 1987 game? It was Providence 103 – Alabama Crimson Tide 82. The mismatch was worse than the score indicates.