Anything less than a Final Four would be a 'disappointment,' Nate Oats says
Alabama head coach Nate Oats is back in the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in his 10 seasons as a Division-I head coach.
He’s made five consecutive tournaments in his six years with the Crimson Tide, and made the tournament three out of four years at his previous stop, Buffalo. With this year concluding his tenth season, a full decade as a head coach, Oats was asked what was different about him now compared to the first time he led a team to the Big Dance.
“The biggest difference is I’m not just happy to be in the NCAA Tournament right now,” Oats said. “We need to make a run. Getting to the tournament’s not good enough. Anything short of the Final Four would be a disappointment in my opinion. That’s what the expectation is. I know we’re a 2-seed so the Elite Eight is supposed to be where it ends. If we don’t play well, if we don’t play a lot better than we did in the second half yesterday, we don’t make it that far.”
Alabama earned a 2-seed in the East Region during tonight’s bracket reveal, the third time in five years it’s been a top-2 seed in the tournament. The Tide is coming off a loss to Florida in the SEC Tournament semifinals last night, but finished the year with a 25-8 overall record and 11 Quad 1 wins on its resume.
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Last season, Alabama made its first-ever run to the Final Four as a 4-seed, but had its season ended in the national semifinal to eventual national champ UConn. Oats not only believes that his team can get back to the Final Four for the second straight year, but can win games once it’s there.
“We’re more than capable of making it back to a Final Four and winning games in the Final Four,” Oats said. “Expectation levels are a little bit different than they were nine years ago. Still fortunate to be coaching at a Division-I level, but personally I’ve got higher expectations and the program here has higher expectations.”
Alabama’s NCAA Tournament journey will begin on Friday with a matchup against 15-seed Robert Morris. The game will be played in Cleveland, Ohio with tipoff times yet to be announced.
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