Nate Oats clarifies comments, alleged shot at Johni Broome

Nate Oats made sure to clarify himself today after what some took as an apparent shot at Auburn’s Johni Broome.

Following this weekend’s win at Texas A&M, Oats had a comment about the toughness of Alabama’s Cliff Omoruyi following an ankle injury – which was the same injury that Broome suffered earlier on Saturday at South Carolina. With that, he began his press conference on Monday with an explanation of what he actually meant as there was no intentional connection or reference to the Tigers’ center.

Nate Oats opened his press conference clarifying his comments on Cliff's injury:

"People want to take some stuff I say and twist it. That was nothing about Johni Broome's injury. … Saying someone on our team is tough doesn't insinuate someone on another team isn't."

— Blake Byler (@blakebyler45) January 13, 2025

“Alright, before I get going on the upcoming Ole Miss game, apparently there was some, uh, misunderstanding. People obviously want to take some stuff I say and twist it. I’m fairly used to that,” said Oats. “When I referred to Cliff being tough coming back from an ankle injury, I had nothing in my head at all about Johni Broome’s ankle injury. When I saw the video of Johni Broome’s injury, it looked like he broke it – significantly different injury. Saying that one of our guys is tough does not insinuate that somebody from another team is not. It’s two totally separate injuries.”

Oats also used that to discuss any issues with how he’s been talking about Aden Holloway, who transferred to ‘Bama from The Plains over this offseason.

“Similar to when I saw Holloway is playing well for us? That doesn’t mean that had anything to do with the coaching staff at his previous school. He just – some players, any year in college, play a little better. Holloway’s been playing great. Cliff’s tough. Doesn’t insinuate anything about the other great program in our state who’s currently the best team in the country,” said Oats. “So, get that straight moving forward for anybody that tried to twist my words on Cliff’s injury.”

This comes after Oats gave credit to Omoruyi for how he battled through his ankle injury to finish with 10 points and seven rebounds in the win for the Tide in College Station on Saturday.

“Cliff, you know, in limited minutes – and I’ll say a lot about Cliff, man. A lot of guys would have just sat that one out after they rolled their ankle like he did and he manned up, wanted to play, wanted to be there for his teammates,” said Oats. “Ends up with 10 rebounds in 16-plus minutes. You can’t say enough about it because we ended up getting 54 and he got about 20% of our rebounds. So big game for him.”

That was after Broome exited during the second half of Auburn’s win in Columbia with a significant ankle injury earlier in the day. After being down on the court for several minutes, staff members helped him off while he put no pressure on that leg. Since then, his diagnosis was a sprain that won’t require surgery but will keep him off the floor for a timetable that’s currently indefinite as he recovers with him at least being out for their weekday matchup against No. 15 Mississippi State on Tuesday as of now.

Broome has been one of the best players in the country so far this season. He’s averaging career-highs with 17.9 points, 10.7 rebounds, and 3.3 assists along with 2.7 blocks to go with 54.7% shooting from the field.

The in-state rivalry runs between Alabama and Auburn, especially with both basketball programs where they are as each are currently ranked in the top-five. With that said, Oats made sure to say that this quote from over the weekend had nothing to do with Broome at all.