Nate Oats 'couldn't be more proud' of Alabama's title after off-court distractions

Wednesday night, Alabama erased a 17-point second-half deficit to come all the way back and beat Auburn on their home floor to lock up their second SEC regular season title in the last three seasons. This time, the Tide were even more dominant and have just one conference loss all year prior to a trip to College Station for a matchup with second-place Texas A&M in their SEC finale. Win or lose, the Tide will return to Tuscaloosa as league champions ahead of next week’s SEC Tournament.

Head coach Nate Oats, for one, is extremely proud of his group and said as much after the Auburn win:

“I just couldn’t be more proud of this group, to be honest with you. Obviously, it’s a heartbreaking situation that’s never lost on us, but the kids have worked really hard. Winning the SEC is not an easy thing to do. Look at the teams in this league. It’s a great league. I just can’t tell you how proud I am of this group this year.”

To do so in two years out of three at Alabama…well, that’s unheard-of on the basketball court. But Oats also thinks this one means a little bit more than the 2021 title because the team and a packed stadium full of fans got to celebrate the accomplishment together.

“These fans have been great since we’ve got here. I was really happy we were able to win this thing outright, do the celebration in Coleman,” said Oats. “Winning it two years ago was great, but you’re on the road in a COVID environment at Mississippi State. Tonight was special. And we talked about it before the game. At the under-8 timeout, we needed to play a little harder. I said, ‘We’re not losing this game because we didn’t play hard enough to win it,’ and our guys came out and played harder. So it was special to do it here at Coleman.”

Those home fans were probably pretty deflated once Alabama was down by 17 with roughly 10 minutes to play. However, thanks to their unwavering and raucous support, the Tide were able to snap back into gear and hold the Tigers to six scoreless minutes as they climbed back into the game and eventually forced overtime, where, of course, Alabama prevailed. Just an awesome night in Tuscaloosa for Nate Oats and ‘Bama amid the circus going on off the court.