Nate Oats reveals messaging now that Alabama no longer controls their SEC Championship fate

Saturday night’s matchup between No. 4 Tennessee and No. 14 Alabama had the winner earn the poll position in the Southeastern Conference. Now, with the Volunteers having won it, Nate Oats knows the Tide missed an opportunity and must now rely on others in order to win the league.

Oats spoke about losing possession and control of the conference’s regular-season title in his postgame press conference following their 81-74 loss to Tennessee. He said it’s a difficult thing to handle considering they were in position and are no longer with one week to go.

“It’s hard. We’re not in full control of whether we win it or not anymore,” said Oats. “We were going into tonight. We had full control over whether we won the championship. Now, we need some help.”

Alabama has been right at the top, if not the No. 1 seed overall, for most of the conference season. Still, at 12-4, they now sit in a tie with South Carolina at No. 2. Both are at one game back of Tennessee for the lead with only two games to go.

Oats knows that his team missed their shot to control their outcome themselves this past weekend. With that being the case, he said it’s now on his team to respond and handle their business in case anything happens in Knoxville over the next week that could turn things back in their favor

“We’ll see how mature our guys are. We talk to them all the time – control the things you can control. What we can control now is our effort on Tuesday, our effort on Saturday,” said Oats. “If we’re looking for help, not getting it, and that affects our effort? Then we’re not as mature as we need to be.”

“We’ve gotta take care of our business,” said Oats.

‘Bama would obviously prefer to be the No. 1 seed in Nashville for the SEC Tournament next week. The No. 2 spot wouldn’t hurt either, though, considering how bunched up the top of the conference is. That’s why, regardless of how the Volunteers close, Oats wants the Tide to put themselves in the best position possible for their run in Music City.

“If we get some help? Great. If we don’t? We could still get a 2-seed,” Oats said. “We’re certainly looking to get a bye, not to play ’til Friday. The easiest way to win the tournament championship is to get the highest seed you can get. At this point, we’re playing for seeding.”

In the end, Oats isn’t excusing anything as Alabama squandered their own chance to be in the same position that Tennessee is in now. He realizes what was at stake and, as such, he’s going to let the cards fall where they may by the time that the conference race comes to an end this weekend.

“If we get some help? Great. If we don’t get any help? We didn’t deserve to win it,” said Oats. “We needed to win this one to have full control over our destiny to whether we win the regular season or not.”