Nate Oats has high expectations for this Alabama basketball team. While many took a wait-and-see approach with this team, it was clear from the road win over St. John's in the second game of the season that the Crimson Tide had a higher ceiling than a lot of people believed.
After beating Illinois last week, Oats confidently proclaimed that he believed he had a team that was good enough to win the National Championship.
So, of course, Oats brought his team to Las Vegas for the Players Era Festival with one main goal in mind: to win the tournament and collect a million-dollar payday. To that end, the Crimson Tide fell short.
Alabama lost its opening game in Vegas to Gonzaga, ending its chances of competing for the title. It bounced back by blowing out UNLV and Maryland. Oats is happy that the team got better, but he knows they missed a real opportunity.
"The biggest thing is we needed to get better," Oats said about Alabama's performance in Vegas. "We definitely got better. But no, we were trying to win it. I thought we had a team that could win it. And we were up on Gonzaga and could have beaten them. Didn’t play well enough. They’re a good team. They did struggle tonight with Michigan’s size inside, which is gonna be a tough matchup on the third day. They’re a lot older. Michigan’s a lot deeper in the frontcourt. But Gonzaga’s gonna be one of the best teams in the country. We had a chance to beat them. I would have liked my shot against any of those teams that finished 3-0 here, but it wasn’t meant to be. But we got better. So, the goal of getting better, we got better. Goal of winning it, we didn’t achieve that.”
Nate Oats knows Alabama can compete with anyone
The way Michigan played at the Players Era Festival, it probably would have been an uphill battle to beat them, particularly with the banged-up team the Crimson Tide brought into Wednesday's matchup. But it speaks to the supreme confidence Oats has in this team that he said he was confident in Alabama's ability against any of the teams that went 3-0 in Las Vegas.
Alabama is off to a 5-2 start on the season with quality wins away from home over St. John's and Illinois. Its two losses came against KenPom top-five teams in Purdue (No. 2) and Gonzaga (No. 5).
Against lowered competition the last two days, Alabama did what it should have done: win comfortably. Alabama beat UNLV by 39 and followed that up with a 33-point win over Maryland.
Alabama is as battle-tested as any team in the country through seven games. They still have Clemson next week and Arizona the week after on their non-conference schedule, which will provide opportunities to earn a couple more quality wins before the start of SEC play.
This team is ahead of schedule and still well short of healthy. They may just be scratching the surface of their ultimate potential.