Nate Oats completes Alabama's non-conference schedule with familiar foe

Nate Oats needed to fill one more non-conference game to complete Alabama's schedule for the 2025-26 season. He reached out to an old friend to do it.

According to Rocco Miller, Alabama will face Antoine Pettway's Kennesaw State in a game in Huntsville on Sunday, December 21st.

Pettway is a former Alabama player and assistant coach. He played for the Crimson Tide from 2000-2004, and made one of the most iconic baskets in Tide history when he scored the game-winning lay-up to beat Florida in 2002 and deliver an SEC Championship to Alabama.

From 2008-2023, Pettway was an assistant with the Tide's basketball program. He was a coach from 2008-2010, then the director of basketball operations from 2011-2012, and then an assistant coach again from 2013-2023 before getting the head coaching job at Kennesaw. Pettway worked under four different head coaches in Tuscaloosa. He was an assistant for Oats for four seasons.

Alabama's non-conference schedule is once again stacked

It speaks to the ridiculous nature of Alabama's 2025-26 schedule that Kennesaw - which finished last season No. 131 in KenPom, will be one of the easiest games on the schedule.

Alabama now has a full slate of 13 non-conference opponents set up, with dates and times still to be determined for some:

vs. North Dakota
@ St. John's
vs. Purdue
@ Illinois
Players Era Festival x3
SEC/ACC Challenge
vs. UTSA
vs. Arizona
vs. Kennesaw State
vs. Yale
vs. USF

Along with Pettway, Oats will face off with two other former assistants on the schedule. Austin Claunch (UTSA) and Bryan Hodgson (USF) will take a crack at their mentor as well.

The number of games is set, but Alabama will still find out later who four of their 13 opponents will be. The bracket is not yet set for the Players Era Festival in Las Vegas, and the SEC/ACC Challenge opponents have yet to be announced.

Alabama finished 2nd in the Players Era Festival last season, losing the Championship Game to Oregon after Latrell Wrightsell tore his Achilles. This year's field has expanded to 18 teams, including some heavy hitters like Auburn, Baylor, Gonzaga, Houston, Iowa State, Kansas, Michigan, St. John's, and Tennessee, among others.

In the SEC/ACC Challenge last year, Alabama earned a prominent non-conference victory by going on the road and beating North Carolina 94-79. Most Tide fans are probably clamoring for an Elite Eight rematch with Duke this time around, though with how difficult the non-conference slate is, a lesser opponent would be welcomed, too.

Oats couldn't help himself with this schedule. After initially discussing the potential need for a bit of an easier non-conference slate, Oats has once again positioned Alabama to potentially play the toughest schedule in the country for the fourth straight season.