Nate Oats is using Nick Saban, Tom Brady as examples to keep Alabama focused during big week

This is a big week for the Alabama men’s basketball team.

The Crimson Tide (20-3, 9-1 SEC) climbed to No. 1 in the Coaches Poll and No. 2 in the AP Top 25 Poll, setting up a top-two matchup against in-state rival Auburn – which is ranked No. 1 in the AP and No. 2 in Coaches – on Saturday, February 15, in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. 

After flying a little under the radar earlier this year, Alabama has a bigger target on its back ahead of the final eight games of the regular season. But as the Tide has moved up in the polls, sixth-year head coach Nate Oats isn’t changing his approach in mid-February.

In fact, he showed his team a clip of legendary Alabama coach Nick Saban to prove his point.

“His coaches calling him, asking what he does different for a national championship,” Oats said. “(He) almost looked at them like it’s kind of a stupid question. You just had a big game last week you were getting ready for and a big game the week before, and just do what we do and stay locked in. 

“Obviously, we’re not letting the rankings go to our head. That’d be stupid. So we gotta keep these guys preparing for Texas as if it was the national championship game, and then you just get your reps prepping for big games all year, and at least with us this year in the SEC, there’s no bad games. I mean, this is a great game. They’re really talented. There’s first-round picks on this team.

“So I don’t think it does a whole lot different for us, to be honest with you.”

Saturday’s Iron Bowl of Basketball will be the 44th meeting between the top two teams in the AP Poll and the first that will feature two teams from the SEC. The winner will have sole possession of first place in the SEC standings with six regular-season games left to play.

But Alabama must first face Texas on the road in Austin on Tuesday, February 11 (8 p.m. CT on ESPN). Losing a midweek game to the Longhorns would knock some of the luster off of the big game at Coleman Coliseum on Saturday, where College GameDay is headed.

A lot of the talk this week, at least outside of the program, will be on the Alabama-Auburn game. But Oats is sticking to the same formula that has allowed the Tide to reach 20 games in 23 tries this season. A self-proclaimed football junkie, Oats said he used seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady as an example of how to prepare for each game the same.

“We kind of showed them a little bit of some stuff Tom Brady said about how he preps for different things,” Oats said. “We’ve got to prep for this Texas game like it’s the Auburn game. 

“You can’t all of a sudden turn up your preparation for a big game, if you will. That’s just asking for disaster. It’s showing your immaturity. We’ve got a lot of fifth-year seniors. We should not be immature.” 

Oats continued, “We should be prepping for Texas like we’re prepping for Auburn, like we would prep for an NCAA Tournament game. So when we get to the NCAA Tournament, when we get to the SEC Tournament, when we get to these so-called big games, we’ve already been prepping for every game like it’s a big game. 

“So that’s what we’ve been trying to tell our guys. And I hope that they’re mature enough to understand that, and I think they are.”

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