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But, Alabama has been a consistently "good" program, pretty much throughout its history. We've been pretty mediocre for the last 2 1/2 coaches, but even have a few tournament appearances in those years. VT had one recent run due to a very good coach. This is like 15 years ago when teams like LSU were claiming to be better football programs than Alabama just because they had had more recent success. Alabama basketball isn't Alabama football, but VT basketball isn't LSU football either. Avery Johnson is a TERRIBLE college coach, but he was a good recruiter. He squandered some very talented teams. I say that to point out that Oats isn't going to have to do much building at Bama. He's inherited a pretty good roster - 5 former top 150 recruits (4 of which were top 100). And the current recruiting class is ranked 17th in the nation (3 more top 100 kids, plus Raymond Hawkins) with the possibility of adding 5* Trendon Watford in 9 days. I just don't agree that VT is a better job historically OR currently.

Yes, as I mentioned when I joined.

I'd like to see you rationalize that comment. Better in what way? All time winning percentage Bama .615% VT .548% NCAA Tournament Appearances Bama 21 VT 11 Elite 8 Appearances Bama 1 (2004) VT 1 (1967) Sweet 16 Appearances Bama 8 (most recent 2004) VT 2 (most recent 2019) Conference records Bama .560% with a winning record against 11 SEC teams. UK and Arky (4 games behind arky) are the only two with winning records vs Bama. VT .437% with winning record against 4 ACC teams (Clemson, GT, WF, and Pitt) and a losing record against the other 10 teams. Money? Bama a lot VT not as much Dumb "Football School" argument? If you want to apply this, then you have to apply it to VT doubly, since they've had almost no history of success in basketball Support I don't know about VT, but Bama just paid several million dollars to fire a coach that had a winning record and a squeaky clean image. Bama also has approved a 115 million dollar gutting and "renovation" of their basketball arena, which will, essentially, be a brand new arena. That is after having dumped tens of millions into renovating it to a lesser degree a few years ago (under a different AD). Bama is also historically near the top of the SEC in attendance numbers. So... better job how?

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.

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.