Nate Oats reaches 100 wins, fastest in Alabama history to get there

The Alabama basketball team knocked off Liberty on Saturday afternoon, giving coach Nate Oats his 100th win as the Crimson Tide head coach. He reached 100 wins faster than any other coach in the program’s history.

Oats reached the mark in just 147 games.

He joins seven other Alabama coaches who have hit 100 wins in their careers with the Crimson Tide: Hank Crisp (264-133), Hayden Riley (102-104), C.M. Newton (211-123), Wimp Sanderson (267-119), David Hobbs (110-76), Mark Gottfried (216-138) and Anthony Grant (117-85).

Alabama hasn’t quite gotten off to the start to the season that it would have liked to, dropping a handful of games against top-notch teams.

In fairness, the schedule has been absolutely brutal.

The Tide have dropped games against Ohio State, Clemson, Purdue, Creighton and Arizona. The last three of those teams were each ranked in the top 10 nationally at the time of the game.

Oats bemoaned his team’s inability to hold onto leads in the second half, or the Crimson Tide would have a much sturdier resume right now.

“We’ve been one of the best teams in the country for large parts of most games, and then we just have stretches where we just fall apart and lose everything we’ve built up for 28, 32, 24 minutes, whatever it is,” Nate Oats said. “Our last four losses, we’ve all had a six-point or better lead against four top-10 teams in the country and our winning percentage at one point in the second half in all those games was over 75 percent.

“I’d like to see us come up with some fire, some leadership, make sure that we’re coming out, the players are leading to make sure our intensity is there. It doesn’t necessarily have to come from the coaching staff.”

As Alabama continues to look for more wins to stack on Oats’ resume, it’ll do so relying on a handful of stars.

Veteran guard Mark Sears has been excellent this season, averaging 19.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.4 steals per game. He’s been the do-it-all threat in the backcourt, providing consistent leadership.

Transfer forward Grant Nelson has also been excellent, averaging 14.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 2.3 assists and 1.1 blocks per game.

Guard Aaron Estrada is the team’s third scorer averaging double-figure scoring, currently at 13.9 points per game.

Nate Oats and Alabama will return to action looking for Oats’ 101st win when SEC play begins against Vanderbilt at 3:30 p.m. ET on Jan. 6. That game will be broadcast on the SEC Network.