Paul Finebaum praises Nate Oats for leading Alabama to Sweet 16

For the third time in his five years with the Crimson Tide, head coach Nate Oats has led Alabama to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. Defeating Grand Canyon 72-61 on Monday to keep their season alive.

Oats has achieved success in Tuscaloosa in short order, something that has been far more synonymous with the football program than the basketball team.

SEC Network host Paul Finebaum joined McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning on Tuesday and spoke about Oats’ recent success, putting any criticism of Alabama’s head man to rest given the program’s history.

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“You can only look at what has happened in the past,” Finebaum said. “I felt like last year, if you want to find criticism, I would point toward last year’s Sweet Sixteen game. That was inexcusable I thought. He has the best team in the country and they probably should have done better. But that’s just holding him to a standard that they had one of the two or three best teams in the country. This year they don’t.”

Oats is just the second coach in school history to lead Alabama to the Sweet Sixteen multiple times. And even though their upset loss to San Diego State in last year’s tournament was a disappointment after becoming the first Alabama team to ever achieve 30 wins, Finebaum believes this year’s Regional Semifinal appearance is a pleasant surprise.

“I think they’ve already exceeded expectations this year because of all the changes that you guys talk about every morning, the coaches, the players. This has been an extraordinary coaching job by Nate Oats and I think if they get past North Carolina, fantastic,” Finebaum said. “If they don’t it’s still been an amazing year with another great recruiting class coming in.”

Alabama has only reached the Elite Eight once in program history, giving Oats and the Crimson Tide a huge opportunity to make history with a statement win over the top-seeded Tar Heels.

Cubelic asked Finebaum how much sweeter an Alabama Sweet Sixteen victory would be over North Carolina given the pedigree of the UNC program. But Finebaum is more worried about what it would mean regarding the future of their head coach.

“It’s tremendous because that’s one of the gold standards of the game, and I’m not qualified to break that game down two days out, but I think Alabama has really elevated. I think the ultimate question here Cole is what happens now to this program?” Finebaum asked. “Do they figure out the facility situation? Is that enough to keep Nate Oats? And I read, just like you did, that he’s just got an extension and that’s pretty typical nowadays in college basketball. But I can tell you Nate Oats is going to be a coveted man out there.”

Alabama’s short and long-term future will certainly be interesting to watch moving forward. As Oats will lead the Crimson Tide to their Regional Semifinal matchup against North Carolina on Thursday at 9:39 p.m. ET in a game airing on CBS.