Has Oats Found Another Brandon Miller?

Alabama basketball Head Coach Nate Oats signed two players during the current early signing period but he's not necessarily done after the signatures of Aiden Sherrill and Naas Cunningham came in.

Thursday Oats told the media, “We’re super excited about both these guys. We’ll continue to add quality players that we think have a chance to be pros in our program.

how many are we looking to fill still in this class, probably 2-3 more. But if we don’t get them here in the fall or they don’t commit, we’ve got some guys we’re recruiting that are talking about maybe committing after the signing period. At this point, what the signing period allows us to do is talk about them and takes the visit limit off them and we can go visit them as often, which is good because you can build a better relationship with them before they get here. You’ve got essentially unlimited visits."

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Regarding the two newest Tide players, Oats took time to comment on each.

On 6-10 PF Aiden Sherrell

“We’ve been recruiting Aiden Sherrell for a long time. In my opinion, he’s the best big in the country for how we want to play. We targeted him early. It helped that he’s from Detroit originally and I knew a lot of his people up there. He’s 6-11, moves great, can play on the perimeter, shoots the ball well, a lob target.

“He can roll out of pick-and-roll and dunk the ball. He can pop and hit a three. He’s playing in a high school program right now that allows him to play on the perimeter, which is great for his development, and he’s showing that he can make threes like we like. Really fired up about him. I think he’s going to be a big addition to our program."

On 6-7 Wing Naas Cunningham

“Naas Cunningham is one of the most skilled big guards, wings in the country, and we’ve done really well with those types here lately. Going back to Herb Jones, [Josh] Primo and Keon Ellis. "Kind of that 6-6 – Keon started for the Kings last night – leading into Brandon Miller.

"We’ve done well with these big guards and wings. He’s coming in, he’s skilled, athletic. He’s got to put some weight on [at currently 190], but we’ve taken some guys like that in the past and been able to put some weight on them. I think he’s got big upside."

With nearly a week left in the early period, Alabama's class is currently ranked seventh in the nation. What else is Oats seeking for this class?

“It’s going to depend on good of a high school player you can get,” he said. “Our motto at this point has been if they’re good enough to help you right away or if they’ve got real upside and understand that it might not be immediate, like, playing.

"The day of bringing a kid in, bringing him along, developing him long-term – shoot, if they don’t play right away, it seems like they want to transfer right away. So if they’re good enough to help us immediately or they understand that it’s going to be a long-term deal and they’re coming in to get better and play in our system, we’ll take them. Otherwise, we’ll go get kids out of the portal.

“Every kid that we’ve had drafted here, all six of them, they’re not transfers. Three of our starters, three of our better players this year are transfers. So we’ve done it both ways... The guys that have come in, they’re going to play. Now, you look at everybody that’s been drafted, they’ve all not been transfers. I think we can do it both ways.

“If we could sign 2-3 more, if we don’t we’ll go get some kids in the portal. We’ve done really well in the portal because those guys in the portal want to play in a system like we’re playing.”