Nate Oats reacts to two Alabama signees making McDonald’s All-American Game

Just five programs have multiple players heading to the McDonald’s All-American game, with Alabama being one of them. Five-Star Plus+ SF Derrion Reid and four-star C Aiden Sherrell will represent the Crimson Tide, playing against the best high school players in the country. A huge honor for the Prolific Prep duo before heading to Tuscaloosa.

The roster news broke while Nate Oats was previewing the Auburn matchup, giving him the opportunity to react. He understands how important stacking talent is for programs, giving Alabama the best chance to seriously compete in the SEC.

Seeing Reid and Sherrell honored with the McDonald’s All-American game just shows what Alabama fans can expect next season.

“They’re really good players,” Oats said. “We’re really excited to get both of them here. It’s supposed to be the 24 best players in high school basketball. It’s nice to have two of them. When you have more talent, it’s easier to be a really good coach, easier to win games. So, we’re excited to have the opportunity to hopefully have more talent than a lot of our opponents next year.”

Oats was in an unusual position when putting together this cycle’s class, having massive coaching turnover on the staff. All three of his assistants left to become a head coach, leaving Oats with nobody to recruit for a period of time.

Even with three new assistants, Alabama was able to maintain the relationships with Reid and Sherrell before eventually locking down their signature.

“Our assistants did a great job,” Oats said. “We were on both of these guys with previous assistants and they got handed off to the new assistants that were able to close it. We have been on both of these guys for a long time. Derrion being from over in Georgia, not too far. He’s been over here a decent amount.

“Aidan is originally from Detroit. You know, I coached 11 years and knew his people. He’s bounced around a couple different places. But they’re both high school teammates now, which is pretty cool. We were recruiting them before they ever teamed up together.”

There is one more commitment Alabama gained from the 2024 class, with four-star SF Naas Cunningham joining the McDonald’s duo in the future. Oats is excited about getting all three to campus for what could be a fun 2024-2025 season.

“Nazz is really good too,” Oats said. “He didn’t get the McDonald’s game but we’ve got three guys that are top 40, for sure top 50 players that are all really talented in the scheme that we want to play under.”