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How will Oats do at Bama?


How will Oats do at Alabama?  

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On 3/28/2019 at 3:14 PM, John said:

They went from 13,000 to 10,000??? I wonder why with such a great SEC pedicree!!! I think they had a lot of bad weather in Alabama but I don’t want to bad mouth the Alabama weather like Oats did to Buffalo when he got off his private plane in Alabama!!!!!

I wasn’t too cool with that either. 

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On 3/27/2019 at 7:35 PM, DooleyBull06 said:

The SEC is a tough conference. Alabama will never top Kentucky. I think Oats will do well but it all depends on their adaministrations expectations. Being the 2nd or 3rd best team in the conference and making it to the NCAAs might not be enough. Major college basketball is a whole other league. 

Would we say that Hurley is doing well? I say he has underachieved. So can you imagine the shorter leash Nate is gonna have. He now has to win, win quickly and often. There’s no room for down years. Just ask Avery Johnson.

Nate > Hurley as a coach

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43 minutes ago, UB85 said:

 

As someone who knows him pretty well and watched him as closely as anyone my strong belief is that Alabama hit it out of the ball park. He’s a damn good recruiter, he’s intelligent, a family man, plays an up tempo style, works his rear end off, recruits good citizens who play unselfish basketball. I have no idea why he hasn’t issued a statement. I am more perplexed by the silence of our AD. He hasn’t said s thing knowing the fan base is pissed. 

Calling Mark Alnut! Are you out there anywhere??? 

Alnutt gave a statement.  

http://ubbulls.com/sports/mbkb/2018-19/releases/20190327oj0yni

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How do you think Oats' first few years at Alabama will stack up to Hurley's first 4 years at Arizona State? (listed below).    Both Universities have had a few good years and many years of mediocrity in college hoops.

Hurley, Arizona State

2015-2016  15-17

2016-2017  15-18

2017-2018  20-12

2018-2019  23-11

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2 minutes ago, zigo230 said:

How do you think Oats' first few years at Alabama will stack up to Hurley's first 4 years at Arizona State? (listed below).    Both Universities have had a few good years and many years of mediocrity in college hoops.

Hurley, Arizona State

2015-2016  15-17

2016-2017  15-18

2017-2018  20-12

2018-2019  23-11

He will start off somewhere around those last 2 years, low 20s in wins, which isn't super easy to do in the SEC. In a year or two, he'll be up near the top I'd imagine, battling the big boys. I am wondering if he will try to pluck Blake Hamilton's brother off the transfer wire. He put his name in the portal from UNLV a few weeks ago. It wouldn't shock me in the least, knowing that he and BH know him.

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1 minute ago, zigo230 said:

How do you think Oats' first few years at Alabama will stack up to Hurley's first 4 years at Arizona State? (listed below).    Both Universities have had a few good years and many years of mediocrity in college hoops.

Hurley, Arizona State

2015-2016  15-17

2016-2017  15-18

2017-2018  20-12

2018-2019  23-11

The cubboard was left in pretty good shape at Alabama provided Oats can keep some players from transferring (Kira Lewis). And the school is dumping massive amounts of resources in support of Oats. Oats also brought in Hawkins immediately.  So Nate is setup for more immediate success than Hurley. It’s all on him now. If he fails it would be because he failed as a coach. No excuses for him. 

Also you guys gotta remember that when it comes to recruiting Oats is no longer in the kiddie pool. Meaning he isn’t looking projects and late bloomers. He is now recruiting top 100 kids. Again...more is expected of him. No time for him to bring in kids who will need massive developmental time. Hence him going after 5 star recruit Watford. 

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On 3/29/2019 at 12:39 PM, BamaAlum05 said:

Bama fan here. I was searching for perspective from UB fans on Oats and found this board. I saw some comments up the board about Bama fans' expectations. Honestly, I think most of our folks just want to be relevant enough to be in the tournament more years than not and play a fun brand of basketball. We aren't expecting national titles or Final Fours. We wouldn't turn those things down, either, but if we make the tournament and play hard, that's the goal. 

Our last two coaches, Anthony Grant and Avery Johnson, played really slow, sloppy brands of basketball. I am envious when I watch games like Purdue/UT last night, Duke/UCF, and your Buffalo teams, who move the ball well, take care of the ball, and score efficiently. We have been the polar opposite - our team generally consists of a bunch of really great athletes playing rag-tag ball and generally not giving much effort. That's one of the main reasons we are excited about having Coach Oats. He is the opposite of everything we have come to expect in a good way. 

You guys have a hell of a program and, in the eyes of most basketball savvy fans around the country, are becoming a program in the mold of Gonzaga, VCU, Wichita, etc. where you've built it to a point that people expect you to keep doing well even if you lose coaches. 

Would love any perspective on Nate Oats. We will absolutely be pulling for you guys from now on and perhaps we can get a home and home scheduled or find a way to match up in a pre-conference tournament. 

Oats and Hodgson will be great recruiters, they’ll sell the program well. Uptempo fun basketball that kids will want to play. It will be sloppy, but it will be exciting sloppy. The plan worked great in the MAC, I don’t see a reason why it won’t in the SEC unless he can’t recruit at the level of guys like Pearl and Calipari. 

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4 hours ago, rma said:

Has an AD ever done this at UB?  I'd rather they look for the next guy rather than get roasted by the media.

Anything he says would be boiler plate. This is just something fans complain about, but at the end of the day, either we'll be happy with the hire or upset with the hire and nothing in between will matter much.

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You know, at this point, between Oats and Hodge, I'm ready for new blood. These 2 left in a really shitty way and I am definitely over them. It's like getting rid of an abusive SO. You can't see how you could do without them until they're gone and then you're like, "Holy crap, we could do so much better!"

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Bama fan, stopping by to peacefully give you my $ 0.02. You can blame Grey Byrne, our AD at Bama, for the way this whole thing went down. Greg was ADAMANT from the beginning that nothing about this coaching search was going to leak. Our last AD (a buffoon), was publicly played by Greg Marshall during the last coaching search. Greg was not going to allow any info to leak, and he specifically said if any info did leak, he would assume that coach didn't want the job. It certainly accomplished what he set out to do - find a coach who was legitimately interested in the job rather than one interested in a public spectacle that would get him a better contract at his current job. He did it so well that our normal insiders were blind-sided when Oats was announced. 

The downfall of that was Nate had to do everything secretly, or risk losing the offer. You guys know him better than I do, but I also know the tendency of fans to turn on their own as soon as a coach, player, or recruit decides to go elsewhere. None of us know the specifics of what has happened behind the scenes since Nate accepted the job. I suspect there has been a lot more communication between all parties than we're privy to. 

Anyway, we're excited to have him, and I hope you guys get another great coach and continue rolling. As far as how will Oats do at Bama, I'm very optimistic. Alabama isn't the bottom dweller in basketball that many seem to believe. We're second only to Kentucky in all time SEC wins, although a couple of other teams have had more tourney success. We have a pretty good string of sweet sixteen appearances in the 70's through the early 90's, but only one elite eight which was fifteen years ago now. You can never know how these things will work out, but I love Oats' style of play, and I think he brings the fundamentals we've been missing with our last two coaches. We have the potential to be a very good basketball program and there is a latent fan base that has been yearning to return to the days when tournament appearances were expected. Most of us are cautious, but very optimistic that Oats can get us back to that level. 

Anyway, although I'm happy to have him, I'll say sorry for poaching your coach. I know that has to suck. If it makes you feel any better, if he does have the success we're hoping for, we'll have to worry about every blue-blood job opening in the future. That's just how it is. 

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3 hours ago, teague said:

 

The downfall of that was Nate had to do everything secretly, or risk losing the offer. You guys know him better than I do, but I also know the tendency of fans to turn on their own as soon as a coach, player, or recruit decides to go elsewhere. None of us know the specifics of what has happened behind the scenes since Nate accepted the job. I suspect there has been a lot more communication between all parties than we're privy to. 

 

Maybe I am wrong, but if they hash out the agreement eating Mexican food, then he could have signed the agreement in Buffalo as well.  Then he gets to meet with his players and have a teary goodbye...and thanks Buffalo, the fans, the city, etc.  Get's on that plane to Tuscaloosa and is greeted there and announced.  That would have been okay for the rank and file.

He didn't do that.

He (from what has been mentioned on this site) didn't tell his players directly (the AD did) and then a few found him in his office packing up...and then he spoke with those in his office.

He sent a message a week later to the fans about his "hectic" week.  I think that tells you so much about the character of the person, unfortunately. 

So while there is a "tendency of fans to turn on their own", I think there is a much (much) higher percentage that have turned because of how it was handled.  You are always going to get some who feel betrayed and grab their pearls, but this goes deeper and has impacted more.

You have to remember...Nate has skipped a step.  To go from MAC to a mid-level P5 is a big deal (with only 4 years of head coaching experience in college).  He didn't get to go to Illinois, for example, and try to get them competitive.  There's no guarantee his approach will work in Alabama and/or the SEC.

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32 minutes ago, UB92 said:

Maybe I am wrong, but if they hash out the agreement eating Mexican food, then he could have signed the agreement in Buffalo as well.  Then he gets to meet with his players and have a teary goodbye...and thanks Buffalo, the fans, the city, etc.  Get's on that plane to Tuscaloosa and is greeted there and announced.  That would have been okay for the rank and file.

 

You have to resign from one school to sign a contract with another. At that point, you no longer have any authority to do anything on that campus. And, I assume, most of the players weren't huddled up together that day, waiting just in case their coach resigned and had to catch a plane to Alabama an hour after he resigned. I'll bet logistics had far more to do with what happened than most here want to admit. 

I mean, I get it. Most of our fans are blasting the integrity of the players who are transferring, or considering it. They've done it with every coach that has ever left or been fired from Alabama. It's easy to find things to be angry about if you're looking for them. 

The truth may not be all roses, but it's also very likely that the coach your fans and players loved for 6 years didn't suddenly become a different person. 

 

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11 minutes ago, teague said:

The truth may not be all roses, but it's also very likely that the coach your fans and players loved for 6 years didn't suddenly become a different person. 

 

Well yes true, he didn’t become a different person. He just showed us all who he really is. Plain and simple lack of class 

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I personally think he'll do well.  Definition of well is that he'll have a close to winning record in the SEC, have 20+ wins and get a 4 to 10 seed in the tourney most years.  Once in a while his 4 seed team might be good enough to reach the Final Four.

The problem he will face is that he'll need to compete against the Dukes, Kentuckys of the world.  I don't think he can go after the 1 and dones.  Maybe lucky if he can get 1 one and done per every 2/3 years.  Not even sure the one and dones give you wins anyway (Wait as I write this, I think NBA is changing anyway, but ...).  He'll need to win with 3-4 year guys.  Similar to how Virginia/Villanova is doing it.  So not the top recruits, but good enough to play in the SEC.  So he'll need to develop and outcoach his opponents, guys with much more basketball knowledge.

The other problem he's going to face is that once his team has success, the guys will leave early for the NBA.  Man, it doesn't get easier outside the MAC now that I think about it.

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5 minutes ago, admin said:

I personally think he'll do well.  Definition of well is that he'll have a close to winning record in the SEC, have 20+ wins and get a 4 to 10 seed in the tourney most years.  Once in a while his 4 seed team might be good enough to reach the Final Four.

The problem he will face is that he'll need to compete against the Dukes, Kentuckys of the world.  I don't think he can go after the 1 and dones.  Maybe lucky if he can get 1 one and done per every 2/3 years.  Not even sure the one and dones give you wins anyway (Wait as I write this, I think NBA is changing anyway, but ...).  He'll need to win with 3-4 year guys.  Similar to how Virginia/Villanova is doing it.  So not the top recruits, but good enough to play in the SEC.  So he'll need to develop and outcoach his opponents, guys with much more basketball knowledge.

The other problem he's going to face is that once his team has success, the guys will leave early for the NBA.  Man, it doesn't get easier outside the MAC now that I think about it.

Can't exactly blue collar while chumming it up at private yacht clubs either. What is the next pitch. "White Collar" award a briefcase for the hardest worker?

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9 minutes ago, 961819 said:

This is laughable 

EBC414E8-A432-41EC-91C8-4D0F1CB02F8A.png

Someone buy the man a thesaurus 

"Blue collar" basketball worked for buffalo on a number of different levels, it just doesn't with bama.

They're other words and phrases that can work for Bama that get the message across of hard work

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