Buzz Williams commends Aidan Shaw for reaction to incident with Nate Oats

Texas A&M won its first of two games against Missouri this season, squeaking by in College Station. A result Buzz Williams will be pleased with, the first thing he mentioned in his postgame press conference had nothing to do with the contest. He wanted to give credit to Mizzou’s Aidan Shaw for how he handled being shoved by Nate Oats a week ago in Tuscaloosa.

“No. 23 should be commended for how he handled that national scene that happened last week,” Williams said. “I stopped social media so I didn’t know what had transpired. And then when I was watching that game — I went and introduced myself before the game.

“How he handled himself as a sophomore in college is remarkable. On national TV, for him to have the maturity to respond the way that he did. Credit him and credit to his family. Obviously, credit to Coach (Dennis) Gates. Because that could have went really South really, really fast. And we could be having a different conversation about a 19-year-old.”

Missouri traveled to Coleman Coliseum last Tuesday for an important SEC clash. Emotions were high on both sides, resulting in some physical play. After a foul was called on Alabama, the two teams gathered around the bench area and were having some back-and-forth talking.

Shaw was right in the thick of it but Oats took one arm, extended it, and told him to get back to his own bench. Nothing came of it, with Shaw not having a major reaction — something Williams felt the need to give him credit for when watching the game to prepare for Missouri.

At the time, Gates wondered why a technical foul was not called on Oats. He believes had a player been the one to extend the shove, action would have been taken by the officials. Gates wishes the same would be true for an opposing head coach.

“I just pose the question — if that was players in the huddle, put a hand on an opponent, what would take place? It would be an automatic technical foul, right? I thought I saw two referees in the huddle,” Gates said. “It wasn’t a technical foul? But that’s the question I would pose. If it was players, making hand contact, what would take place?”

Oats was publicly reprimanded by the SEC, with Greg Sankey and the conference releasing a statement the following day. Since then, nothing has come from the incident and both sides have seemingly moved on.

Williams knows things could have gone differently, though. Not everyone would have been able to keep their cool in that situation but Shaw was able to, causing no further escalation.