Nate Oats cautions players about dangers of upset

Alabama was named the No. 1 seed overall in the NCAA Tournament, which technically means if they do happen to lose, whenever it may be, it would be an upset loss. As the Crimson Tide head into their first round matchup versus Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, head coach Nate Oats was asked about how he believes his team has faired this season versus some smaller name schools.

“I think we’ve done well. You know, we have never come out and not taken those opponents seriously. When you think about one of our better non-conference opponents was Liberty. I thought our guys came out and played really well. Really focused on the scouting report that game,” Oats said.

The Crimson Tide handled business versus non-conference opponents this season, only losing to three big-name schools that you’ve likely heard of; UConn, Gonzaga, and Oklahoma. In 2018 the UMBC Retrievers defeated Virginia in the first round making history, becoming the first No. 16 seed to defeat a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

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Like the Crimson Tide, the Cavaliers too were the first overall seed of the tournament, which Oats used as an example to his players as they enter their game versus the Islanders 24-point favorites.

“We haven’t talked in depth with the Virginia deal. We just mentioned it,” Oats said. “It happened before. Don’t think that you are a one seed you are guaranteed to come out of the first round. It’s not guaranteed. It’s happened already. Let’s be aware of the fact this team — and they are number one in their league in offensive and defensive efficiency, both. They are a good team. They play hard. They have good players.”

Oats is familiar with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, winners of the Southland Conference and of 13 of their last 14 games. They defeated Southeast Missouri State on Tuesday 75-71 in their First Four matchup to be the official 16 seed, and will be looking to keep that momentum going to pull off an improbable upset victory over the Crimson Tide.

“They are a well-coached team. Coach Lutz, I’ve known Coach Lutz, good friends with Coach McDermott at Creighton. He coached under McDermott, known him for a while. He does an unbelievable job. They have this program headed in the right direction,” Oats said. “We just made our players aware of the fact that it’s been done before just to kind of heighten their attention to detail if that makes sense.”