I mean to be fair tho he's had six full seasons at Alabama. Two times in those six seasons he's had teams that had a top 5 defensive efficiency. Another season he was just outside the top 25 at 28. So I don't think it's unreasonable to think that Oats could very well put together a team that is top 25 in both.
Bama losing big to Zona
- Thread starter Monday Nitro
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I mean to be fair tho he's had six full seasons at Alabama. Two times in those six seasons he's had teams that had a top 5 defensive efficiency. Another season he was just outside the top 25 at 28. So I don't think it's unreasonable to think that Oats could very well put together a team that is top 25 in both.
Laugh the pain away of UK having Mark Pope over a top-tier coach hahaha so funnyWhere did I say that he was a bad coach? Stop trying to twist my words, lib.
All I did was quote what he said about UK but you low IQ individuals can not comprehend simple words.
You are definitely being fair ... and also very accurate. Oats seems ever committed to defense, which is prudent and wise. I question whether it is possible to play his offensive scheme and be consistently top-tier defensively, although that is his goal. As we all know, defense and rebounding are especially paramount on off-shooting nights to provide an opportunity for defeating elite opponents in tournament play. It seems obvious Oats knows this, smartly.
https://www.al.com/alabamabasketball/2025/10/this-will-be-the-key-for-alabama-to-win-a-national-championship-per-nate-oats.html
Alabama Basketball HC Nate Oats Gets Honest on This Upcoming Season
How can Alabama find its way back to the National Championship contention? Nate Oats had a one-word answer to describe it.
sports.yahoo.com
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I kind of feel like Oats is like similar to Tony Bennett just in reverse.
Bennet at UVA was known for the defense. There was a ton of teams that he had that ranked in the top 10 in defensive efficiency. But the years in which they were very good, he actually had great offensive teams to go along with it (people just didn't realize this because of the slow tempo and low points scored per game).
I feel like Oats this is exactly what we are seeing. You are going to have a consistently good offense then occasionally have defensives to go along with those teams. It's just a matter of whether or not he's able to capitalize on those instances.
I think even at the very top end of coaches, it's hard to consistently have both. But if that's the bar we are holding to here, then I'm not sure there's really anyone out there that can claim that.
Bennet at UVA was known for the defense. There was a ton of teams that he had that ranked in the top 10 in defensive efficiency. But the years in which they were very good, he actually had great offensive teams to go along with it (people just didn't realize this because of the slow tempo and low points scored per game).
I feel like Oats this is exactly what we are seeing. You are going to have a consistently good offense then occasionally have defensives to go along with those teams. It's just a matter of whether or not he's able to capitalize on those instances.
I think even at the very top end of coaches, it's hard to consistently have both. But if that's the bar we are holding to here, then I'm not sure there's really anyone out there that can claim that.
He’s been killing it at Alabama. ALABAMA. Not Duke. Man you’ve always been one of the worst fans in terms of understanding how this works that I’ve ever seen but damn. Look at you reach to bash a coach that’s owned our *** at Alabama because he’s 7-3 sitting at #12 getting beat by the top team in the countyy? The fact that you don’t know how ridiculous that is says everything.
Excellent Post !! For general interest, here is a piece on top-rated defensive coaches:
College basketball's sharpest defensive masterminds: T.J. Otzelberger, Steve Pikiell top the charts
With offenses putting up historic numbers, defense-first college basketball coaches are facing a fascinating dilemma in the chase for stops.
www.cbssports.com
If this is the best mental capacity you have, then you are truly stupid. That’s the nicest way I can put it. Slow down and don’t move so quickly. Breathe as you talk and type. It won’t hit you so hard and it might come out making sense.
A simple question, perhaps lame, just occurred to me. Do you think there is more PRESSURE to make shots for supposed shooters at Kentucky than most other places, especially during tournament play ?? Is it possible to play as loose and relaxed at Kentucky as elsewhere ?? I don't know, just wondering.
We seem so see, more often than not, that we shoot well against the weaker teams during the season. There is more pressure to make shots, especially threes, against top-tier teams, for sure, and against EVERYBODY in the NCAA Tournament. Also, we seem to shoot better when we are the underdogs and not expected to win. Just thinking out loud ... ????
We seem so see, more often than not, that we shoot well against the weaker teams during the season. There is more pressure to make shots, especially threes, against top-tier teams, for sure, and against EVERYBODY in the NCAA Tournament. Also, we seem to shoot better when we are the underdogs and not expected to win. Just thinking out loud ... ????
So what you’re saying is our chances of getting Oates is the same of Pope winning anything of remote significance here? Got ya.
I’d argue we shoot well against weaker teams because they can’t stay in front and have to over help leading to better looks. Against good teams with equal or better athleticism we’re not getting those easy looks
Was he arrested? Charged? Didn’t think so.
I’m sick of all this moral code bs at UK. We are coming up on 15 years without a title. If the coach isn’t in cuffs then idgaf if they’ve made questionable decisions in the past.
Damn good point ... makes good sense. However, what about the NCAA games where we've shot so poorly; against weaker teams that may not have the athleticism to stay with us. Is it David slaying Goliath ... or is the PRESSURE of shooting in the tournament for Kentucky often too much to bear ??
Barkley alluded to the pressure of playing for Kentucky (and similar schools) last night and said it was definitely a thing. ?????
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I think we've seen in the past now with the transfer portal several guys move around teams. We've seen guys play at mid majors come to UK and actually shoot better. So I don't think so.
What I do feel is very real tho is...........when things get bad (ie, losing games to UL, MSU and Gonzaga and in the fashion they were lost), players tend to press. All of a sudden they try and do too much. And I 100% believe that's what we are seeing what this team. There's not really a reliable go to guy on this squad and as a result, people are putting too much pressure on themselves to be that guy.
And I think that's the primary issue with our shooting in big games. The amount of c razy shots I see some of our players taking is just insane.
What I do feel is very real tho is...........when things get bad (ie, losing games to UL, MSU and Gonzaga and in the fashion they were lost), players tend to press. All of a sudden they try and do too much. And I 100% believe that's what we are seeing what this team. There's not really a reliable go to guy on this squad and as a result, people are putting too much pressure on themselves to be that guy.
And I think that's the primary issue with our shooting in big games. The amount of c razy shots I see some of our players taking is just insane.
I remember OP would post these same threads, to shield calipari. Once he said “Calipari beat Oats with 2 pointers”. Oats ended up in the sweet 16 or F4, Cal went out in the 1st or second round. Now OP acts like he never defended Cal lol.
Oats inherited a program that hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since the year AD led us to the title. A program that was 18-16 the year before under Avery Johnson. His first season wouldn't have gotten an NCAA tournament bid as they went 16-15, but covid ended the season. Since then he's been to the NCAAT the other 5 seasons. In his 5th season(9th overall) he took them to the FF with a roster he assembled.
He has only been a HC in D-1 for 11 seasons which is only 2 seasons more than Coach Pope. He had a top 15 finish at Buffalo of all freaking places. In his 6 full seasons at Alabama the Tide have finished in the top 6 a total of 4 times with 3 of them being top 5.
1st season- No NCAAT
2nd season- Lost in S16
3rd season- L in 1st round
4th season- L in S16 to our boy Lamont Butler
5th season- L in Final Four
6th season- L in E8
That's 4 Sweet Sixteens, 2 Elite Eight, and 1 Final Four
He's also won the conference twice and the SEC tournament twice. UK hasn't won the conference since 2019-2020 and the conference tournament since 2017-2018.
UK hasn't been to an E8 since 2019 and the last FF was 2015
Give him the backing of the Kentucky fanbase? Who knows what he could do. Maybe he'd fail. It's a great job, but a monumentally tough job. If Coach Pope's coaching record is worthy of the job then Nate Oats' certainly is.
He has only been a HC in D-1 for 11 seasons which is only 2 seasons more than Coach Pope. He had a top 15 finish at Buffalo of all freaking places. In his 6 full seasons at Alabama the Tide have finished in the top 6 a total of 4 times with 3 of them being top 5.
1st season- No NCAAT
2nd season- Lost in S16
3rd season- L in 1st round
4th season- L in S16 to our boy Lamont Butler
5th season- L in Final Four
6th season- L in E8
That's 4 Sweet Sixteens, 2 Elite Eight, and 1 Final Four
He's also won the conference twice and the SEC tournament twice. UK hasn't won the conference since 2019-2020 and the conference tournament since 2017-2018.
UK hasn't been to an E8 since 2019 and the last FF was 2015
Give him the backing of the Kentucky fanbase? Who knows what he could do. Maybe he'd fail. It's a great job, but a monumentally tough job. If Coach Pope's coaching record is worthy of the job then Nate Oats' certainly is.
The backing of the Kentucky fanbase? What backing? MP won a Natty here as a player, had a great first season, and half this board was ready to fire him eight games into year two lol
What is your obsession with Oats? Get a hat with an elephant on it and have a happy
My obsession with Oats? WTF are you talking about. I made an objective post in a thread about Nate Oats you ****wit.
This board and the small sample size of the idiots booing at the games isn't indicitive of the overall support of coach Pope you mental midget.
I support coach Pope. I want him to be successful. That doesn't mean can't be mad when I see UK has an advantage in he post against IU and completely ignores it for a half, for example. We've had an injured team. I think a fully healthy team with JQ will be completely different than what it has been without Mo D and J-Lowe as well.
Make 1 comment about Nate Oats and some dumb **** calls it an obsession. Stfu when an adult is speaking. Stupid *** mother ,,,
One comment? You wrote his autobiography and resume. Why don't you ask him out and be done with itMy obsession with Oats? WTF are you talking about. I made an objective post in a thread about Nate Oats you ****wit.
This board and the small sample size of the idiots booing at the games isn't indicitive of the overall support of coach Pope you mental midget.
I support coach Pope. I want him to be successful. That doesn't mean can't be mad when I see UK has an advantage in he post against IU and completely ignores it for a half, for example. We've had an injured team. I think a fully healthy team with JQ will be completely different than what it has been without Mo D and J-Lowe as well.
Make 1 comment about Nate Oats and some dumb **** calls it an obsession. Stfu when an adult is speaking. Stupid *** mother ,,,
Mute point. He’ll never get a sniff here. Oatz KNEW Brandon Miller brought the gun to the scene where a 22 year old girl was shot and killed and he still let him play after that, KNOWING he was asked to bring the gun to them and did so. No coach does that unless they are slime. He’s nowhere near “great”. He’s scum.
Like, Tyreke Evans did? And yet you cheered for Calipari for 6 years?
This X 100. If you want to fantasize about other coaches, at least make it coaches that have a 1% chance to be here someday. Nate Oates..Dan Hurley....Jay Wright...Brad Stevens...Billy Donovan...Hell, Scott Drew rejected us to stay at Baylor.
I really don't think it's wrong to have a discussion on potential coaches even if that liklihood is close to zero percent.
Well, see, that's different. It's acceptable because Calipari was on our side. It's only bad if someone else does it.
Cal never did anything like letting a player play that brought a gun to a murder scene after being asked to bring a gun to a conflict. Anyone that knows the story and still wants Oats here is nobody we need anywhere near our program. But I get it, anything to crap on Pope for some. Why even support UK if one is so clownish? Then again, some have more fun when UK loses or has issues as they bathe in negativity around our program. Bunch of Jerry Tipton-ites. lol.
You were literally given a link to Tyreke Evans being the driver during a drive-by shooting before Cal played him anyway at Memphis, so yes, he did do something almost exactly like that.
Until a Kentucky fan tells me that we only won four titles (78, 96, 98, 12), I’m going to consider the whole idea of “Coach X is too bad a person to be here” to be an invalid point. We won four championships pre-integration, were known to be paying players $50+ per game, proven point shavers, and played almost every game in the 1958 tournament a virtual home game. Not one Kentucky fan says “don’t count those.” Coaches aren’t deacons and they don’t have to be. Win the damn games and you’re a legend here. Period.
Evans didn't bring the gun, it was shot from his car and it happened in High School, not at Memphis. LOL at those that can't even enjoy a win. I will. Keep hating on Pope, but deal with it.
Monday Nitro is probably right about one thing. People would be frustrated with Oats at Kentucky imo. You think Pope shows no fire? lol. Oats will shout once or twice in a game but he looks like he’s at a congressional meeting every postgame. He also is even more analytically driven than Pope —- doesn’t even allow mid range shots. But I digress, gotta go wash my hands after agreeing with Nitro lol.
You say that like Kentucky was the only school to win a championship pre-integration. This isn't the 40s and 50s anymore. Kentucky paid their price for the point shaving scandal. Your point about paying players is ridiculous, and obvlivious to how many schools up until the NIL era who were paying players.
Debate 101: Argue a point your interlocutor is actually making. Show me where I said anything about Kentucky being the ONLY school to do anything. Red herring.
And you won't be here when we beat them
You mean the squad that gives up a ton of offensive rebounds?
There’s a group doing that. We know the ones. It doesn’t matter if a mop bucket was the UK coach. They’re coach fans not UK fans. They don’t care what kind of shape UK is in, they fall hard to the charisma and get sucked into personalities. They don’t care what it does to the program. As long as that coach is protected.
The fact that this has to be explained leads me to believe some of them are just being disingenuous or trolling. Nobody is this dense.
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And Calipari covered for way more than this. He had abusive players, he had players soliciting prostitution, he had players down town Memphis inciting riots and fighting people. Arrest. The works.
How this works with these guys, is if you coach Kentucky, they’ll back anything. But not until then. Hypocrite doesn’t begin to describe it.
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Oats is obviously 10x the coach Pope is and any argument otherwise is cope. Nate has to be our long term choice
Listen that situation was worse than what was reported. Nobody in Memphis thought he’d suit up. It was a really bad situation. And yet, Calipari did what he could to get him on that court.
College basketball coaches NONE of them, are what you’d consider good men. Men that are ethical stay in high school ranks want nothing to do with the college basketball scene and for years protected the players while they were in college still. They are their real mentors. Once we did away with that and put their lives in the hands of college coaches it was the end of anything ethical.
You cannot be ethical and be a college basketball coach. It’s the dirtiest sport in the world. That’s like trying to rise in the ranks of hell, but being ethical to do so. It’s not possible. The closest you can get to that is tubby smith, and he ended at High Point then fired. Tubby always wanted to stay a high school coach too, so what does that tell you? He never enjoyed the college system at all. And he didn’t make it.
If you want ethical men to run a basketball program in college, you are going to fail 9/10 - 10/10 times. I think it’s cute some of these guys actually believe what they’re saying. Mark is what I’d call a good man but if he’s not dirty behind the scenes he won’t make it big either.
Calling a flag here: You’re referring to the people who don’t share your view as disingenuous and/or trolls….yet, I’ve kindly pointed out that it would benefit both sides to try to better understand the rationale of the other and you made very clear you have no interest in doing so. How can you, with a straight face, make reference to ingenuity if you aren’t at least willing to have a two-way conversation? That’s whack as hell. By the way, hearing someone else out doesn’t mean you have to agree with them whatsoever. The good guy/bad guy foolishness is unnecessary. There is one Big Blue Nation and reasonable minds can come to different conclusions.
Always a funny argument. If it was so easy, why didnt your school rack up a few titles?