Nate Oats explains why Alabama is primed for a deep NCAA Tournament run

There are a lot of reasons why Alabama could win this year’s NCAA Tournament. You could look at their 29-5 record, their offense, or their star power as obvious explanations as to why they could. However, you could also take some reasons straight from Nate Oats’ mouth.

Ahead of their March Madness opener this afternoon versus Texas A&M Corpus Christi, Oats highlighted maturity as the biggest key to his team’s success this season. He believes the Tide are grown enough to love each other in every way and that, by the end of their run, he thinks they’ll be appreciated nationwide as well.

“I think we have a maturity about us, a camaraderie, a cohesiveness. The chemistry is great. There’s literally nobody jealous about anybody else on this team, which is rare at this level. And the talent level is high,” Oats said. “So, you know, the more you guys get to know our group? I think the more you are going to love them. Because they really are truly, genuinely concerned about their teammates, and they love each other.”

From there, he specifically highlighted the maturation of Alabama’s young core as vital to his group. While this team reminds him of the one he had in 2021 that made the Sweet 16, he also thinks the growth of the Tide’s freshman is a very key difference that only adds to their chemistry.

“The group we had two years ago? I thought was primed, too. But we shot 12/25 from the free-throw line against UCLA and lost in overtime. We win that game and who knows what happens from there. We had a pretty good group two years ago. This group is similar but they are definitely different,” said Oats. “I know we’re younger. But I don’t think youth means immature. We have a lot of younger, mature guys. Noah Clowney, Brandon Miller, Jaden Bradley, Rylan (Griffen). All four of those freshmen are really mature. And I like the maturity of this group. And, like I said, just the chemistry of this group is really tight and really close.”

Again, you could give just about any reasoning as to why the Crimson Tide are the favorites this March. You earn that when you post a campaign that gets you the dance’s No. 1 overall seed. Even so, Oats himself put maturity and camaraderie up in bold as reasons why their journey, which starts this afternoon against the Islanders, could end in Houston by the time it’s all said and done.