Alabama Basketball head coach Nate Oats has quickly risen the ranks of men’s college basketball coaches in the country. In five years at Alabama, Oats has led the Crimson Tide to a 117-54 record, four consecutive appearances in the NCAA Tournament, two SEC regular season and tournament titles, and led the program to its first ever appearance in the Final Four this past season.
Oats has been one of the fastest risers in the profession. Just 11-years ago, Oats was a no-name high school coach in Michigan. Bobby Hurley gave him an opportunity to join his staff at Buffalo, and after two seasons as an assistant coach there, Oats was promoted to head coach when Hurley took the head job at Arizona State.
Oats won 69% of his games at Buffalo in his four years, and led the Bulls to the NCAA Tournament in three of his four seasons before Greg Byrne tapped him as the replacement for Avery Johnson in Tuscaloosa.
Oats’ success at Alabama has made him regarded as one of the best coaches in the country. According to Joey Loose with Busting Brackets, Oats is the 10th best head coach in the nation. No offense to Joey or the coaches ahead of him, but I think that ranking is ludicrous.
Right now – not worrying about what happened a decade ago – there’s only one coach in college basketball that I would confidently put in front of Oats and that’s Dan Hurley, who just led UConn to back-to-back national titles. After that? I think the list starts with Oats.
1. Bill Self, Kansas
2. Dan Hurley, UConn
3. Mark Few, Gonzaga
4. John Calipari, Kentucky
5. Tom Izzo, Michigan State
6. Matt Painter, Purdue
7. Scott Drew, Baylor
8. Kelvin Sampson, Houston
9. Rick Barnes, Tennessee
10. Nate Oats, Alabama
Bill Self is probably the only other coach I could listen to an argument about ranking ahead of Oats considering he’s a two-time National Champion and led Kansas to a title just two years ago. But the Jayhawks have lost in the round-of-32 two consecutive seasons. I think ranking him ahead of Hurley at this point in time is absurd.
Mark Few is a great coach, but he’s only been to two Final Four’s in 25-years at Gonzaga.
John Calipari at 4? You mean the guy that Kentucky essentially ran off this offseason? Calipari is maybe the best recruiter in college basketball, but Big Blue Nation long soured on Calipari, and now he hopes to avoid the same fate at Arkansas. I’m all about what have you done for me lately? And Cal hasn’t been to a Final Four since 2015 and his last – and only – national title was so long ago that current recruits don’t even remember it. Kentucky hasn’t even made it out of the first weekend of the tournament since 2019. Oats has two Sweet 16’s and a Final Four since then.
Tom Izzo is a legend and one of the best coaches in the history of the sport, but it’s been five years since the Spartans made it past the Sweet 16 and they’ve been a bubble team pretty much ever since.
Matt Painter is a great coach, but I’m really interested to see what he does without a generational college basketball talent in Zach Edey.
I’d have Scott Drew higher on the list, personally, but not above Oats. He hasn’t gotten Baylor out of the first weekend since the 2021 title.
Nate Oats has beaten Kelvin Sampson head-to-head twice, and Sampson’s Cougars have failed to live up to tournament expectations recently.
Rick Barnes? He led Tennessee past the Sweet 16 for the first time this past season, but hasn’t made a Final Four since 2003 with Texas.
It’s not recency bias that puts Oats above most of the rest, either. Sure, leading Alabama to the Final Four last season, at a program that had never gone that far, is a huge deal. But it’s the clear direction forward the program has been headed. Four straight trips to the NCAA Tournament at Alabama is a big deal. That hadn’t happened since Mark Gottfried led the Tide to five straight appearances from 2002-2006.
But the best days for Alabama Basketball are still clearly ahead of them. Oats has assembled perhaps the best roster in college basketball for next season. FanDuel currently has Alabama with the fourth-best odds to win the National Championship this season.
Another trip to the Final Four – and maybe even winning the whole thing – would make it impossible for anyone to deny Oats’ place in the coaching hiearchy.
