Nate Oats outlines roster construction strategy in modern college basketball

NEWARK, N.J. — It’s never been harder for a head coach to build a coherent and competitive roster in college basketball. The transfer portal has made it where any player can leave any offseason, and the portal window being open during the NCAA Tournament puts competitive teams at even more of a disadvantage.

Following Alabama’s loss to Duke in the Elite Eight to conclude its 2024-25 season, head coach Nate Oats was asked about the difficulties of constructing a roster in the modern era.

“Everybody is a free agent every year,” Oats said. “So you’ve got to do a really good job getting guys in that are going to be loyal that fit your system that you can build. Because we play a lot different than almost everybody else in college basketball. Some guys take a little bit to adjust — we play a lot faster than they’re used to. We play a lot more open. There’s a lot more freedom.”

The transfer portal window opened this past Monday, right after the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament. That made things difficult for Alabama, who was on the road playing in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight while other programs that had been eliminated got a jump start on recruiting their roster for next season.

“The portal has been open for a week. We’ve got to get on it,” Oats said. “We’re a week behind a little bit. Preston (Murphy) has been doing a great job during this week while we’re prepping for these games. Obviously playing this deep helps with the guys that value winning and value NBA preparation. I think we’ve got a big head start on guys that want to play in the NBA and want to win.

“We’ll get guys in the portal coming in this week. I’m sure it’ll be a busy week for me. And trying to retain the guys we want back, and I think a lot of those guys understand that they’re great in our system. The system gets them more ready for the NBA than anywhere else, and we win.”

Oats explained some of the ways he would ideally like to construct his roster, using a mix of both the transfer portal and incoming freshmen on his teams each year.

“You know, we want to get as many of the guys back that fit how we want to play on our current roster, and I think we’re in a good spot with that,” Oats said. “You see multiple high major programs across the country getting an entirely new roster every year. That’s not how we want to do it.

“We’d like to get guys that are good, loyal, fit the program, build them up, and then add in some freshmen. We signed three freshmen that we think are going to be great in our system, big guards that can shoot it, make plays. Going to add in some portal guys, obviously.”

Oats also believes the recent success of the Alabama program aids it greatly in recruiting the talent needed to have a high-level roster every year.

“As far as over the last three years, you look at who’s won more, obviously UConn has won back-to-back national championships, so they’re up there. But we’re up there with any other program in the country with the level of success we’ve had over the last three years,” Oats said. “And, yeah, it’s tough to build a roster every year, but when you win at the level we’re winning, when you develop guys for the NBA like we’ve done, I think we’ve got a lot of people that want to come to this program.

“So we’ll get them in, show them what we’ve got to offer and we’ll have a good roster, a roster that’s competing for a national championship and SEC championship next year and the years moving forward.”

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