Nate Oats Shares His Observations on Alabama Basketball
In less than four months, Alabama basketball begins the first season of the Nate Oats era with an expected contest against Penn to open the regular season
During Wednesday's edition of Inside the Locker Room, Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats provided his thoughts on the team including the talent he is inheriting from former head coach Avery Johnson.
"The talent was actually pretty good, and I think it was even kind of built to play the way we wanted to play in some regards." Oats said.
During a recent appearance on Inside the Locker Room, former Alabama guard Jim Farmer noted the high intensity of the practices under Nate Oats. For Coach Oats, the intense practice is part of the process in developing a culture of winning in the program.
"We try to develop a culture where losing's painful, and you compete super hard in practice so you don't lose the day. If you are losing the day, hopefully the other team is talking a lot of trash to you and let you know that you're a bunch of losers and you don't want to be a loser." Oats said.
Approximately one year ago, Greg Byrne unveiled a masterplan to upgrade athletics facilities including Bryant-Denny Stadium and a major renovation to Coleman Coliseum. With his first season coming up, Oats reminded listeners about what
"The Coleman Coliseum renovation is the last thing on his mind. I can't say I don't care because I do think it's going to be nice. It's going to be nice for the fans and we want to have a full coliseum, but I think putting a winning product on the floor is a lot more important to filling Coleman up than it is to actually renovating Coleman. I'm going to worry about the stuff I can control. I'm not able to control that time frame and all that." Oats said.
Find out what Alabama's first-year head coach had to say about the freshman coming and the type of opponents that will be on the 2019-2020 schedule.
Catch Inside the Locker Room every weekday from 7-9 AM on Tide 102.9/100.9 and the Tide 102.9 app.