Rece Davis 'really believes' Nate Oats will lead Alabama to a Final Four

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – ESPN College GameDay host Rece Davis graduated from Alabama in 1988 and remembers watching Wimp Sanderson lead the Crimson Tide basketball team. 

Sanderson, from 1980-92, led Alabama to the NCAA Tournament 10 times in his 12 seasons at the helm, including six Sweet 16 appearances. He has the most wins in program history (267) but wasn’t able to lead Alabama to its first-ever Final Four berth in the tournament.

Davis believes Nate Oats, who sports similar plaid jackets as Sanderson, can reach that goal.

“I think there’s a lot of similarity there because during the time that I was in school here and for a few years after that, that was as good a run of sustained excellence as you would find, absent the one thing that haunted them – not being able to get to the Final Four,” Davis said.

“This is early in the building stage, and I really believe that Nate Oats will get Alabama to a Final Four. But that’s the only thing lacking because everything else during that era when I was in school, they had. The multiple Sweet 16 appearances, the big-time stars, the high draft picks. They had it all.

“… I think that what Wimp did is amazing. It showed it could be done here, and I think that what Nate’s been able to do in a very short period of time is on track to mirror that. And I think ultimately, they’ll get to a Final Four, which is the one thing that has eluded this program.”

Oats is in his fifth year at Alabama and has led the Tide to three straight NCAA Tournaments, including two Sweet 16s in 2020-21 and this past season. UA is currently 20-8 (12-3 SEC) ahead of its final three regular-season games and is tied with Tennessee for first place in the SEC prior to their matchup on Saturday, which is why Davis and company are in Tuscaloosa.

Oats has led Alabama to back-to-back, 20-win seasons for the first time since 2012-13 and did so with an entirely new coaching staff and only three returning players from last year’s team. He hasn’t been thrilled with the Tide defense this season, but offensively, Alabama has the second-highest efficiency rating (128.2) since 1999 (Wisconsin’s 129), per KenPom.

“He’s one of the finest coaches in the country,” Davis said. “He’s really bright, and he’s innovative. He doesn’t let his players play with freedom, he insists on it. This Davin Cosby, now, he’s my favorite player all of a sudden. You know why? Because my man went out there and played 13 minutes and got up 10 threes. That’s my kind of dude right there.

“So they play a style that’s fun to watch, and he’s able to get his players to buy into it.” 

Davis also noted the different ways in which Oats has led Alabama to success in his tenure.

“I think one of the most interesting things about what he’s done in this quest to try to win three conference championships in four years is that he’s pretty much done it with three different teams,” Davis said. “It’s not as if they built toward a stretch and had a core group that stayed around.

“… They don’t have (Brandon Miller), they don’t really have the rim protection and yet, he’s been able to put his team right back at the top of the conference again. It’s really a testament, I think, to the way he plays, the way he gets his players to believe to play with freedom, to play aggressively. They’ve done really well bouncing back from what might otherwise have been significantly demoralizing games, which I think is also the mark of a really good coach.

“I characterized him earlier this week as a rising star and then corrected myself. I said, ‘You know what, I don’t think he’s rising anymore. I think he’s just a star coach.’ He’s excellent. He’s done an excellent job here.”

Given Oats’ success during his time at Alabama, other teams – whether college or the NBA – will take notice when looking for head coaches. Before hosting College GameDay’s first-ever trip to Tuscaloosa for a basketball game, Davis shared his thoughts on keeping Oats at UA.

“Look, I’m not in a position to speak for Greg (Byrne) or the administration at all, but my inclination would be, given the fact that this is the guy that he went out and went after and the success that they’ve had, he’ll do everything humanly possible to keep him here for the long term,” Davis said. 

Davis continued by bringing up Alabama’s latest football hire as an analogy.

“Kalen DeBoer had a really, really good job. Washington is a really good job,” Davis said. “You can win a national championship at Washington, clearly, because they were one game away from doing it last year. So there’s always going to be the draw, though, of a place where it’s everything – for certain people. Some people don’t want that. DeBoer obviously did. 

“And then there’s also the draw of making it everything in your own image. A lot of that will come down to what Nate wants to do, right? I don’t think that he’ll leave Alabama at any point because they didn’t do something, I don’t think. I think they will do everything in their power to make sure that all suitors will have formidable competition to keep him.”

Davis concluded, “I imagine Alabama will, especially with the resources that are available to every team virtually in the SEC now, they’ll do everything that they possibly can to keep him, and it will come down to time and opportunity and what his career goals might be in the next 10 years or whatever. But I would be surprised if he’s not here for the foreseeable future.”

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