Nate Oats names specific issue with NCAA Tournament officiating

Nate Oats got stuck with a technical foul during Alabama’s win over Grand Canyon in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament over the weekend. And it’s left the coach with a bone to pick.

Joining the Paul Finebaum Show on Tuesday, Oats shared his issue isn’t with any one ref being allowed to call the tournament for qualitative reasons. It’s the crews being pulled together with officials across multiple leagues that has caused him ire.

“Look, none of the refs are bad,” Oats said. “But the issue is the referees haven’t worked together, either. They’re pulling guys from this league, that league. So you’ll get one guy calling it super touchy on one end, and then if he doesn’t get to the other end quickly you get another guy. I mean it’s like bang-bang calls that aren’t being called the same way because this guy’s been super picky all year and then this other guy’s let everything go all year.”

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In the Round of 32, Oats got animated and upset with officials when six fouls were called in the first eight minutes of the game, with four against the Crimson Tide. Displeased with the disparity and apparent inconsistency, Oats went further than the officials tolerated and he earned a technical.

And with crews and officials he might be unfamiliar with, interfacing and talking with the officials can be a challenge, Oats said.

“Some of the guys are a little bit more sensitive,” Oats said. “You try to get little feedback on who you got, and then they don’t know you as well either. So you gotta make your point with them without being too demonstrative.”

Oats, however, took it too far and earned his technical. But he wanted to make clear: Inconsistencies within the crew don’t make any of the referees bad at their jobs, even if Oats is getting mad at them.

“And neither one of them are bad refs, but no consistency within the crew is a little bit frustrating to the players and the coaching staff,” Oats said. “That’s where you gotta kind of, I don’t know — I got banged with a T last game. That was the issue there. Neither one of them are bad refs but it’s like consistent within the crew. And I think that’s where the issues, kind of the frustration, comes up.”