Alabama basketball's Nate Oats has been a head coach in Division 1 Men's Basketball for 10 years. He is leading a team to the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in those 10 years and the fifth time out of six seasons with the Crimson Tide. The only year he missed the tournament in Tuscaloosa was his first year in 2019-20, when the NCAA Tournament was cancelled due to COVID. Alabama would've had to win the SEC Tournament that season to get a berth in the Big Dance, however.
Oats spent 12 years as a high school basketball coach in Romulus, Michigan before he joined Bobby Hurley's staff at Buffalo in 2013. He spent three seasons as an assistant before being named the head coach of the Bulls after Hurley left for Arizona State.
In four seasons at Buffalo, Oats led the Bulls to the MAC Tournament Championship three times. They won the regular season and conference title in both 2018 and 2019.
At Alabama, Oats has won two SEC regular season and tournament titles. But how has he done when it matters the most in the NCAA Tournament?
Nate Oats' career record in the NCAA Tournament
In 17 career NCAA Tournament games, Nate Oats has compiled a 10-7 record overall. He's led Alabama to the Sweet 16 three times and last year he led the Crimson Tide to their first Final Four in program history.
The first NCAA Tournament game Oats coached was in 2016 as his 14-seeded Buffalo team faced off with 3-seeded Miami. They put up a good fight, but lost to the Hurricanes 79-72.
Two years later, Oats led Buffalo back into the NCAA Tournament with a 27-9 overall record. He won his first NCAA Tournament game when 13-seeded Buffalo blew out 4-seeded Arizona 89-68. It was this week, and Buffalo's style of play, that put Oats on the radar. The Bulls lost in the second round to Kentucky.
In his final year at Buffalo, Oats led the Bulls to a 32-4 record and the Bulls made the NCAA Tournament as a 6-seed. The Bulls blew out Bobby Hurley and Arizona State in the first round before losing to 3-seeded Texas Tech in the second round.
Oats' first appearance in the NCAA Tournament at Alabama was in 2021 as he led the Crimson Tide to regular season and conference tournament titles. The Tide made the tournament as a 2-seed where they beat 15-seeded Iona and then blew out 10-seeded Maryland to make the Sweet 16. Alabama's run ended there when they lost in overtime to UCLA.
The next season in 2022 was Oats' only Alabama team to date that went one and done in the tournament. A late season swoon put Alabama into the NCAA Tournament as a 6-seed and they lost by 14 to 11-seeded Notre Dame in the first round after Jahvon Quinerly went down early with a torn ACL.
Led by a recruiting class that featured 1st round picks in Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney as well as a transfer point guard from Ohio in Mark Sears, Oats and Alabama bounced back to have perhaps the best season in school history. Alabama went 31-6 and entered the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, the first time in school history they had been a 1-seed in March Madness.
Alabama eased past Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Maryland in the first two rounds before a cold shooting night spelled doom in the Sweet 16 against 5-seeded San Diego State.
With lowered expectations in 2023-24, Oats finally delivered a Final Four run for the Crimson Tide. Alabama shook off a tough end to the regular season and getting bounced in the opening round of the SEC Tournament as they entered the NCAA Tournament as a 4-seed.
Alabama got hot at the right time, beating 13-seed Charleston, 12-seed Grand Canyon, 1-seed North Carolina, and 6-seed Clemson to make it to the Final Four. The Crimson Tide put up a fight in the national semifinal, but didn't have enough to overtake the eventual national champion UConn.
Oats has built a sterling resume as a head coach in the NCAA Tournament so far. All that is left is winning a national title. Is this the year he does it?