Alabama Basketball: Can 2024 be Nate Oats’ best recruiting class yet?

Coach Nate Oats has recruited at near-unprecedented rates during his five seasons at the helm for Alabama Basketball. 

Oats has never finished worse than 17th nationally in recruiting, turned in top-10 classes in 2022 and 2024, and landed 5-stars such as Josh Primo (2020), JD Davison (2021), Brandon Miller (2022), and Derrion Reid (2024) per 247Sports. 

At this point in Oats’ career, the 2022 class is by far his best. It was the 4th-ranked recruiting class in the 2022 cycle, and nearly all of its commits outperformed expectations. Brandon Miller and Noah Clowney both became one-and-done first-round draft picks, Jaden Bradley started 22 games for the Tide as a freshman before transferring to Arizona, and players like Nick Pringle, Rylan Griffen, and Davin Cosby continue to develop within the program. 

It is difficult to project that the 2024 class will outperform this group, but it certainly has the talent to be comparable. 

The 2024 class for Alabama Basketball consists of a trio of top-50 players in 5-star wing Derrion Reid, 4-star forward Aiden Sherrell, and 4-star wing Naas Cunningham. Just last week, Reid and Sherrell were named McDonald’s All-Americans and will participate in the celebrated game on April 2nd. 

These additions will help to make the Crimson Tide very long, athletic, and skilled. If that sounds familiar, it’s because that is the same formula that Coach Oats used to construct the 2022-23 squad that became one of the best teams in school history. 

Ideally, Bama hoops will return a solid core of veterans to pair with this talented freshman class. As is usually the case, Coach Oats will almost certainly add some transfers to the mix as well. 

Alabama Basketball is looking good, both on the court and on the recruiting trail. The future has never looked brighter for the program.