Nate Oats emphasizes playing tough mid-majors like Bryan Hodgson's Arkansas State

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Everyone knows Alabama head coach Nate Oats is a scheduling mad man.

Year after year under Oats, the Crimson Tide has played some of the most challenging schedules in college basketball. This year is no different, with a large number of projected tournament teams and top-25 opponents riddled throughout the non-conference schedule. Oats even wants the challenge to spill over into buy games against mid-major opponents.

Tomorrow, Alabama will welcome Arkansas State to Coleman Coliseum, a team led by former Crimson Tide assistant Bryan Hodgson, who coached under Oats at both Buffalo and Alabama.

“This next one’s particularly good for us, good for me personally,” Oats said during his Thursday press conference. “Bryan Hodgson did a great job turning that program around in one year. He spent eight years with me, this will be the second year in a row they’ve come back and played us at our place. I think they’re just one of two program with a first year head coach last year to have 20 or more wins over Division I teams. He’s done an unbelievable job turning that around. They had over 20 losses when he inherited it, now they’re picked to win their league in their second year.”

Arkansas State was picked as the preseason favorite to win the Sun Belt, and if that happens, the Red Wolves would make a trip to the NCAA Tournament. The team was one year away from making the Big Dance a year ago, falling in the Sun Belt title game after an impressive run as a 4-seed in the conference tournament.

Hodgson has infused the roster with a decent amount of former high-major talent. His leading scorer from their game one win, Joseph Pinion, started his career at Arkansas. The team’s leading rebounder, Rashaud Marshall, formerly played at Ole Miss.

In addition to the strong talent on the roster for a mid-major program, Hodgson has also implemented Oats’ fast-paced style of play that Alabama plays with, which will make for an interesting matchup.

“They’re gonna play similar to us,” Oats said. “They do a lot of stuff like we do, which I’m glad he’s winning. The formula is working at other levels, at other spots. Hopefully we know how to guard it fairly well. Their personnel is obviously different. They’ve got some tough players at different spots. Schematic wise, we should know what they’re doing, I’m assuming they’ll probably run with us, that’s how they play. They put up a lot of points similar to us putting up a lot of points.”

Oats, however, sees a lot of value in playing difficult mid-majors, aiming to get his team’s weaknesses exposed early on in the season before conference play arrives.

“I don’t want to play a game where we can play bad and still win the game. That doesn’t make you better. If we play bad tomorrow night, we’re gonna lose. If we play bad Monday night, we’re gonna lose,” Oats said.

The influx of talent Hodgson has brought to Jonesboro through both the transfer portal and recruiting trail combined with their style of play has made Arkansas State a well-respected mid-major program. In fact, the program is so revered that Hodgson has struggled to get some high-major teams to schedule them, a similar problem that Alabama’s following opponent, McNeese State, has dealt with.

“Bryan told me, he’s tried to get – he’s told me the teams in the SEC he’s talked to, and most of the teams won’t play him. I’m sure Will’s got the same problem,” Oats said. “We’re playing teams that you could lose to. Maybe it bites you at some point, but I think over the long run it helps you because it makes your guys come ready to play every night. I think it makes you get ready for conference play a little better than playing bad teams. We’re going to keep playing good teams, so the good mid-majors can keep calling us and we’re gonna keep scheduling them up.”

Oats knows that challenge that is ahead with Arkansas State, and knows it isn’t one that can be taken lightly, even coaching the No. 2 team in America coming off a 56-point win in the first game of the season.

“I think Bryan’s done a great job,” Oats said. “I don’t necessarily look forward to playing these guys but I look forward to seeing him. I wish him and all the other three guys, Charlie [Henry] and [Antoine] Pettway and Austin [Claunch], I hope they all do well. This one, I hope one of my former assistants takes an L. We’ll be ready to go tomorrow.”