Nate Oats explains origin of hard-hat tradition at Alabama

During Alabama basketball games at Coleman Coliseum, hard hats are a staple of the student section. Even during College GameDay on Saturday, students were wearing the construction hats ahead of tip-off against Tennessee.

It’s a tradition that goes back to when Nate Oats arrived in Tuscaloosa and the type of identity he wants the Crimson Tide to embody. Alabama has been in the top three of KenPom adjusted defense in two of the last three seasons, and Oats said the hard hats go to the players who make plays that don’t necessarily show up in the stat sheet.

While this year hasn’t seen the same type of defensive success, Oats said the hard hats continue to be the symbol of that goal.

“We’ve got blue-collar points that we tally up throughout the game – deflections, floor dives, charges, rebounds, rebound tips. All kinds of stuff,” Oats said. “Stuff that’s not necessarily measured in the [typical] box score, that’s kind of dirty, grimy, blue-collar stuff on a construction site. We try to do that.

“We’ve been top-three in the country in defense two out of the last three years. Not this year, we’re still working on getting our defense going this year. But we do emphasize playing hard, for sure.”

Alabama’s adjusted offense ranks as the best in the nation coming into Saturday’s game against Tennessee, which is a big reason the Crimson Tide have a 20-8 overall record and a 12-3 mark in SEC play. However, the defensive rating isn’t quite where it’s been. The Tide ranked 101st in adjusted defense heading into Saturday night’s primetime matchup against a Tennessee team that ranks No. 4 in adjusted defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.

Even despite the struggles on defense, Alabama has proven it can contend in close games. That’s something Oats said is important as the Crimson Tide come back from slow starts, such as last time out against Ole Miss.

“That was with our awful start,” Oats said. “So at any point, [I know that] we can go on a 10-0 run in a short amount of time. We just need to sit down, get stops, and we can make some runs. I think we’ve done it. We weren’t down late. We were doing a lot bigger late against Georgia, but we were down 10 with about nine minutes to go against Florida not that long ago. So we’ve been down.”

Alabama and Tennessee will tip off Saturday night at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN.