Nate Oats addresses 'scuffle' with Missouri basketball player
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama head coach Nate Oats pushed Missouri forward Aidan Shaw out of his huddle during Saturday night’s game against the Tigers at Coleman Coliseum.
With 7:34 left in the first half and the Crimson Tide holding a 24-15 lead over the Tigers, Shaw and Alabama guard Aaron Estrada exchanged words near the UA bench, and Oats placed his right hand on Shaw’s chest and pushed him away from Estrada, who was fouled.
After the 93-75 win over Missouri, Oats brought up the situation in his opening statement.
“Before I start talking about the game, I just want to address the situation at the under-8 media timeout, the scuffle that happened next to our bench,” Oats said. “I’ve known Coach (Dennis) Gates for a long time. I was a high school coach. He was one of the best recruiters in the country.
“I have all the respect in the world for the job he’s done as an assistant and a head coach before he got to Missouri, as a head coach here. He had one of the best first years in the SEC since I’ve been here in a long time. So it is no disrespect to him or his program.
“I apologized to both Coach Gates and Aidan Shaw. Aidan seems like a great kid and it’s an unfortunate situation, but I apologized to both of them.”
Three technical fouls were handed out during Tuesday’s game, with Grant Nelson, Latrell Wrightsell and Missouri’s Noah Carter receiving them. Oats did not. That was something Tigers head coach Dennis Gates mentioned when asked about the situation after the game.
“Nate apologized after the game,” Gates said. “I’ve known Nate since he was a high school in Detroit. But I just posed the question, if that was players in a huddle with a hand on an opponent, what would take place? It would be an automatic technical foul, right? I thought I saw two referees in a huddle. There wasn’t a technical foul. But that’s the question I would pose.”
This was the second home game in a row for Alabama that featured some chippiness, whether during or after the game. Following the win over South Carolina, Oats called out a quote from a player about the SEC not being ready for the Gamecocks. Asked what has led to the chip on the Tide’s shoulder, Oats said his team is fighting for respect after five losses.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” Oats said. “Grant’s technical, I mean that’s not even Grant. If you know Grant, he’s not a trash talker. He’s one of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet in your life. I think the games just get raised. I suppose the intensity levels get raised. I think it’s great.
“We’ve just got to, from the head coach down, we’ve got to maintain our composure when the intensity gets raised.”
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