Nate Oats reacts to signing contract extension at Alabama

Nate Oats signed a long term extension with Alabama basketball, keeping the head coach on board amid coaching carousel rumors.

The extension was reported just before Alabama’s loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. It wasn’t great timing as he Oats put it, but he’s thankful for his position.

Alabama saw Florida get to Sunday’s SEC Championship Game rather than the Crimson Tide play rival Auburn.

“I’ve had a really good five years here working with Craig, Dr. Bell, the board,” Oats said after the game. “Just everybody around the school. I love it here. We’ve turned the program around. A little disappointed tonight obviously. We’d like to be playing tomorrow, playing for the SEC tournament championship.

“More than the NCAA tournament, the 13 years before we got year, they’d only played in two. This will be four straight for us. We’ve got the program headed in the right direction, we’ve got the commitment from the administration that they’re going to continue to support us in a way that I feel like we can compete to be a top 10, top 25 team year in, year out.”

But, despite an exit in the SEC Tournament, Alabama has more to play for in the NCAA Tournament. Plus, Oats is here to stay long term.

“I appreciate their support in keeping me here,” Oats said. “Take my name out of some of the other job openings that are there. Probably not great timing with this loss tonight, to be honest with you.”

So as far as the positive attitude is concerned, Oats is ready to rekindle that energy going into March Madness.

“Yeah, I mean, we’re just going to have to come in and figure out who we’re going to play Sunday night,” Oats said. “Put together a game plan. Tell them exactly how we’re going to have to do it. Talk about doing it every possession for 40 minutes regardless of what happens on offense. They’re teenagers, young adults, young men. I’ve had issues like this with guys in the past. Seems like as a collective whole, this has been a little bit bigger issue with this group, not being able to forget the play before, move on to the next play.

“I told them again tonight, it really doesn’t matter whether you missed three wide-open shots, your teammate missed you, the ref blew a call. It doesn’t matter. Your effort on defense shouldn’t be affected by what happens on offense. We’ve got too many guys where I feel like it does.”

Being able to flip the switch back is no easy task, but it’s one Oats and crew are up for when the time comes.

“We’re going to have to try to get the attitudes back right, just change,” Oats said. “We want to win, this is what we’re going to have to focus on defense every possession. We’re going to try to reiterate it for the next week. Whether we play Thursday or Friday of next week, we have to be ready to go right out of the gate.”