Nate Oats reacts to setting Alabama basketball record for Top 25 wins

No. 4 Alabama‘s 96-83 win over No. 17 Kentucky on Saturday was historic for several reasons, especially for sixth-year head coach Nate Oats.

The victory was the Crimson Tide’s eighth against an AP Top 25 opponent this season, setting a program record for most AP wins in a single season, and also marked Oats’ 26th career win over a ranked opponent since arriving in Tuscaloosa, surpassing legendary Alabama coach Wimp Sanderson for the program mark.

“Honestly, Wimp did a really good job here, but I’m guessing the SEC is a lot better now, so there’s a lot more opportunities to get Top 25 wins than he probably had,” Oats said in his postgame press conference Saturday. “But when they give you the opportunity and you take advantage of them and try to get it done. We don’t have enough because we had a chance to get two more in the last two games before this and we didn’t come up with them.”

As Oats mentioned, prior to Saturday’s win over No. 17 Kentucky, the fourth-ranked Crimson Tide had dropped back-to-back games against No. 1 Auburn (94-85) and No. 15 Missouri (110-98). Saturday’s victory over the Wildcats improved Alabama’s record against Top 25 teams to 8-4 on the season.

Of course, it doesn’t get any easier as the Tide close out the regular season against four Top 25 teams, beginning with Tuesday’s home game against No. 21 Mississippi State (19-8, 7-7), which it already beat 88-84 on Jan. 29 in Starkville. Alabama then travels to face No. 6 Tennessee (22-5, 9-5) in Knoxville next Saturday before hosting No. 2 Florida (24-3, 11-3) on March 5 with a regular-season finale at No. 1 Auburn (25-2, 13-1) on March 8.

“I think it does speak to the level of the SEC as a whole that now we have all these (Top 25) opportunities. I mean, every team we play the rest of the year is a Top 25 team, so I’m guessing Wimp didn’t have as many opportunities as we’ve had,” Oats continued. “But you also have to go win them, so a lot of credit to our guys here — Herb (Jones) is in the building tonight and today getting rehab on his shoulder, and Herb got it this thing going for us. … A lot of players that stepped up in big-time games throughout the years, and now a lot of opportunities to get Top 25 wins. So a combination of the two, it’s a good time for basketball in the state of Alabama.”

Nate Oats compares final stretch of season to NCAA Tournament

Alabama‘s final stretch of the regular season may prove to be the toughest after drawing Top 25 matchups in each of their final seven games before postseason play.

“I don’t know if anybody’s played one, two and six in the three-game stretch anywhere in the country this year, let alone to close the year out,” Oats said after the Kentucky win. “But we needed this one tonight. And we’re not going to focus on Tennessee until we get through with Mississippi State. And we’re not going to focus on Florida until we’re through with Tennessee.

“We’ve just got to take it one at a time. The good thing with playing a schedule like this is you’re not going to play three games in a row like that until you get to the Elite Eight, Final Four, championship game, if we’re fortunate enough to get that far. So we’re literally playing three teams that are going to be one or two seeds back to back to back, and Mississippi State’s playing for a good seed in the NCAA Tournament, too.”

Currently, the Crimson Tide is tied for second place in the SEC standing with Florida. Both sit two games back of Auburn for the top spot in the conference.

“Outside of maybe the SEC Tournament, we’re not going to see three teams like this until maybe an Elite Eight, Final Four, if we’re fortunate enough to get there,” Oats said. “So at least we’ll have some experience playing very good teams back to back to back.”

On3’s Barkley Truax contributed to this report.