What Nate Oats has accomplished with Alabama Basketball is more than amazing. For the first time in the program's history, Oats has Alabama knocking on the blue bloods' door as an every-season national championship contender.
Can Oats take the Alabama Crimson Tide from one of the best programs never to win it all to a first NCAA Tournament Championship? That question leads to another question. Can the Oats' system win the biggest games against title contenders? Both questions are impossible to answer. The last three seasons indicate Alabama has not been where it needs to be to compete with every season's top teams.
In the 2022/23 season, Alabama lost to the NCAA Tournament runner-up, San Diego State in the Sweet 16. The seven-point loss was a game Alabama could have won. Three games in the 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons paint a different picture. In 2024, Alabama lost to the NCAA Tourney winner UConn by 16 points. Last season in the SEC Tournament, the Crimson Tide lost to NCAAT winner Florida by 22 points and lost to Duke by 20 points in the Elite Eight.
In the UConn, Florida, and Duke losses, was the Oats' system not good enough, or was it a disparity in roster talent? After scoring 113 points against BYU in the Sweet 16, Alabama Basketball only scored 65 points against Duke. Duke was a tremendous team, but the Blue Devils did not win it all.
Alabama shot 35.4% against Duke, including 25% from outside the arc. In explaining what happened, Nate Oats said, "They’ve got length all over the place." One example was 7'2" Khaman Maluach, known for a 9'8" standing reach. Maluach blocked only two Alabama shots, but he affected many others. Maluach also scored 14 points and added nine rebounds. Compare his performance to Clifford Omoruyi for Alabama: four points and two rebounds.
Alabama Basketball Talent and Length
In the 2025 NBA Draft, three Duke players were selected in the top 10 picks. Cooper Flagg was No. 1; Kon Knueppel was No. 4, and Maluach was No. 10. A total of five Duke players were drafted. No Alabama players were drafted.
Can Alabama ever build rosters like Duke and other college basketball blue bloods can? The Crimson Tide's 2025 recruiting class is ranked No. 5 by 247Sports. Duke is No. 1. Alabama has the top class among SEC teams, and Oats also added four transfers, three of whom are rated as 4-star transfer players.
Even better, if length rather than talent was Alabama's biggest deficiency last season, Nate Oats appears to have the solution. Alabama will not be undersized in the 2025-26 season, with three 6'10" players and two seven-footers. Ten players on the roster are 6'4" or taller. Length will not be a problem in the coming season.