Tennessee basketball plays host to No. 6 Alabama on Saturday in Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
The Vols and Crimson Tide’s rivalry has a history of great coaches. The rivalry has primarily been played on the gridiron, but two great coaches have brought it to the hardwood: Rick Barnes and Nate Oats.
Oats’ coaching career
Oats’ first college coaching job was as an assistant for Bobby Hurley at Buffalo. As an assistant, Oats was regarded as a great recruiter and had strong relationships with his players. Those two skills were combined when he recruited Justin Moss. Moss played for Oats in high school and would go on to win Mid-Atlantic Conference Player of the Year for the 2014-15 season.
Hurley left Buffalo in 2015 to become the head coach of Arizona State; Oats was hired as his replacement. Hurley said that he had a spot for Oats at Arizona State if he wasn’t hired as Buffalo’s head coach.
“He (Oats) was getting a lot out of our players,” Hurley said. “He’s a really good recruiter… He invests in building relationships with the guys.”
Oats would go on to be a three-time MAC Tournament Champion and a two-time MAC Coach of the Year at Buffalo. His biggest win at Buffalo was when he beat four-seed Arizona 89-68 in the 2018 NCAA Tournament.
Alabama is a basketball school?
Tennessee has a rich basketball history, but Alabama has always been a football school. In 2019, Oats was hired to be the head coach of the Crimson Tide. Oats went on to transform Alabama’s basketball.
Oats’ page on the Alabama website calls his style of play “Up-tempo and fast-paced,” and he has shown exactly that. Oats took over an 18-16 team that ranked 186th in points per game. In Oats’ first season, the Crimson Tide ranked third in points per game, and in his second season, they finished with the best record in the SEC and won the SEC Tournament.
Oats has continued to be a great recruiter, even in the SEC. Alabama had a player drafted with a lottery pick in the 2020 and 2021 NBA Draft. In 2023 Alabama’s Brandon Miller was selected second overall. Miller was the 2022-23 SEC Player of the Year as a freshman and led Alabama to their second SEC Championship under Oats.
Oats isn’t just a great high school recruiter, he’s great in the transfer portal as well. Mark Sears transferred from Ohio and made an immediate impact. Sears helped the Crimson Tide reach the program’s first Final Four.
Alabama basketball is currently ranked No. 6, while the football team didn’t make the playoffs this year. There is a genuine question if Bama’ is now better at basketball than football, which is a huge compliment to the work Oats has done.
This season Alabama ranks first in points per game and rebounds per game, which can be attributed to Oats’ style of play.
The Vols have won the last three matchups against the Crimson Tide. The game on Saturday is already sold out to students and the cheapest ticket on Ticketmaster is $146. It’s safe to say this rivalry has expanded to basketball and the fans know it, too.
