Nate Oats addresses need to put Final Four in past, create new goals

The Alabama basketball team is coming off a Final Four appearance and coach Nate Oats wants his team to disassociate quickly with that success.

If the Crimson Tide aren’t focused on this year and getting better on a daily basis, they may well come up short of expectations. The Final Four is something to aim for, not to rest on.

“We obviously used it in recruiting to get some of them here, but I don’t really want to talk about it that much with the team,” coach Nate Oats said at SEC Media Day. “I kind of told them we had the celebration Friday, we’ll raise the banner and give out the rings. The issue is eight of our 13 scholarship guys weren’t here last year.”

That might sound bad on paper, at least until you start breaking down Alabama’s roster.

The Crimson Tide return stars Mark Sears and Grant Nelson, two absolutely monumental pieces to build around going forward. Sears scored 21.5 points per game last year, while Nelson averaged 11.9 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 assists.

Throw in transfer Clifford Omoruyi and Alabama has a frontcourt to be feared, even though quality depth could be tested at times.

Regardless, Nate Oats does not want his Alabama players thinking about the Final Four.

“That was last year. It’s kind of old news,” Nate Oats said. “It’s great for the program, for the fans, for the university to be able to celebrate it. But it has got nothing to do with what we’ve got going on this year. So we’re trying to flip the page, move on, not really address it. It was nice, it was great, it’s good for our league, good for our school, good for our program. But we’ve got to focus on what we’ve got to do this year and that’s where we’re trying to get our guys’ minds at.”

Alabama will play a challenging schedule, one that currently features five top-25 teams in the non-conference portion of the slate. Those games include road trips to No. 14 Purdue and No. 9 North Carolina, a home date with No. 15 Creighton and neutral-site games against No. 4 Houston and No. 25 Rutgers.

Eight ranked SEC teams — totaling 10 games — are also on the docket.

Suffice it to say, Nate Oats will need his players to buy in quickly to the idea that it’s a new year if Alabama hopes to reach its full potential.