Nate Oats on why he quickly removed himself from Kentucky Basketball's coaching search

Alabama head coach Nate Oats joined Seth Davis for a summer conversation about Crimson Tide basketball for Bleacher Report. In it, Oats explained why he removed himself from any consideration for the Kentucky job in April. Amid early speculation, Oats announced his commitment to Alabama twenty-four hours into UK’s search to replace John Calipari.

“Despite any rumors to the contrary, rest assured that I will continue that pursuit as your head coach. Roll Tide!”

pic.twitter.com/s8WNow2NMO

— Nate Oats (@nate_oats) April 9, 2024

In this week’s interview, Davis asked Oats, “So, why not at least have that conversation?”

Family, loyalty, and moving

Oats named several reasons, from family to loyalty to Alabama. He hates to move, too. “I’ve got three daughters,” he said. “They all like it here in Tuscaloosa. My oldest Lexi’s going into her junior year here. I haven’t had to move a ton in my profession, in college. A lot of these guys are moving every couple of years. I’m fortunate I didn’t have to do that… I didn’t really want to move my family.”

The loyalty angle was also a decisive factor in the decision. From the AD to the boosters to the fans, Oats feels a commitment to finish the job with a national championship after coming close in 2024 with the school’s first-ever Final Four.

“Greg Byrne is one of the best ADs in the country,” Oats explained. “I’d love to work with him the rest of my career, to be honest with you, and he took care of me. I mean, I’m not the highest-paid coach in the league. I didn’t ask for that. But I’m making a lot more money than I ever thought I would make, and they made it clear that they want to keep me here.

“So, I think we got a chance to win a national championship at Alabama, and I think it would mean a lot more winning one here then maybe it would be winning one somewhere where they won with lots of different coaches over a period of time.”

Final Four expectations at Kentucky

Oats added that Final Fours are “expected at a place like Kentucky,” citing UK fans’ disappointment in John Calipari at the end of Calipari’s time in Lexington. “Like, John Calipari’s a pretty good coach, he’s won a lot of games in his life,” Oats said. “He’s won everywhere he’s been, and they weren’t happy.”

Oats isn’t afraid of the pressure at Kentucky, even admitting he would welcome the expectations because he already puts a lot of pressure on himself. Still, it would mean more to win in Tuscaloosa.

“We built this thing up to where we’ve got a chance to win it. I’d like to give myself a chance to win it here. I like working with the people I have here. I was comfortable here. My family’s comfortable here. I decided I want to stay here.

“The job was never offered in the first place. I don’t want people thinking I turned it down. That wasn’t the case. I took my name out of consideration before it would have ever gotten to that point.”

Alabama on top

Oats rattled off Alabama’s list of accomplishments, in addition to last year’s Final Four, after his explanation of why he wasn’t interested in Kentucky.

“We were the No. 1 overall seed the year before. We’ve got more championships in the SEC than anybody else does since I got here. So we’ve been, you know, gradually moving it up; we’ve got two regular seasons, two tournaments in the SEC; we’ve been a 2 seed; we’ve been the No. 1 overall seed. We’ve been getting this program up to a national level.”

Then a comment that stung: “There’s other highly acclaimed blue blood programs in this conference that haven’t won anywhere close to eight NCAA Tournament games since we’ve arrived.”

I think he’s talking about Kentucky again there.

Nate Oats with Seth Davis for Bleacher Report