Would you be okay if Nate Oats was UK's next head coach?
- Thread starter kydmb99
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He's maybe the most exciting of the realistic options (Wright and Hurley I don't see as realistic options)
Anyone voting no is not a UK fan.
I'd be OK if anyone other than Cal is the coach. 100% serious.
I get it's a business. I'm just not okay with the accessory to murder thing as I understand it now. (I have not researched it, but I'm sure an education is forthcoming in subsequent comments)
Wouldn't be my first or second choice but he would be in the top 5. We just need some fresh blood and a fresh start with someone driven and ready to prove themselves. Cal lost that a few years ago. He no longer has the eye of the tiger.
Right freaking now! I don’t care who Cal gets, who leaves, etc.. the mess he created cannot be cleaned up in 1 year. Next year will be a disaster and the following year, his last, he will be a lame duck coach, will do and say whatever he wants knowing he is on his way out the door. That one will be his revenge tour against the administration and fans….he will burn it down!
Literally anyone would be a better option as our coach right now, and Oats would flat ass kill it here.
Yup. As I would about 5 other coaches at this point, but Oats is on the list. Calipari is completely washed up.
(Whispering…convening among Japanese executives…who finally look up to respond)
“Yes..we believe so”.
Coaching wise, product on the court, he would be first choice.
But Louisville still climbing out of what happens when you let program admin slide and turn a blind eye to discipline. Especially with gambling now bigger than ever.
He's done really well at Alabama. I thought he didn't handle the off-court stuff very well last year but it's something I could move past.
I was a Scott Drew guy until recently and now Oats is my #1 realistic option.
Here's why:
Oats had his best team ever last season and lost most of the roster and ALL of his assistants and reloaded enough to where he now has them knocking on the door of a final 4. He's legit. Like seriously, they went 2-4 in their last 6 SEC games including some blowouts and he's got them playing their best basketball shortly after it looked like the train had gone off the tracks at the worst time.
He's got an edge. He's got a sustained record of success. He can build and rebuild a staff. He's built rosters with all 3 types of players you have to in today's landscape - high level high school recruits, transfers, and long term program development guys.
He's coming into his coaching prime and we need to make it happen 12 months from now.
I was a Scott Drew guy until recently and now Oats is my #1 realistic option.
Here's why:
Oats had his best team ever last season and lost most of the roster and ALL of his assistants and reloaded enough to where he now has them knocking on the door of a final 4. He's legit. Like seriously, they went 2-4 in their last 6 SEC games including some blowouts and he's got them playing their best basketball shortly after it looked like the train had gone off the tracks at the worst time.
He's got an edge. He's got a sustained record of success. He can build and rebuild a staff. He's built rosters with all 3 types of players you have to in today's landscape - high level high school recruits, transfers, and long term program development guys.
He's coming into his coaching prime and we need to make it happen 12 months from now.
Oats is Cal pre 2012. He wants that ring so bad he cant stand it.
I'm generally fine with it. But I don't take much away from last night. That UNC team was a paper tiger IMO.
So what, lol . Practically every coach out there has an extension . WHENEVER Cal leaves , money won’t be the issue.
Are you serious? He was the obvious first call BEFORE this tournament started. He will win a national championship. Just of question of whose sideline he’s standing on when he does it.
That’s stupid!
Now if you were to say the only choices are Oats and Cal, then maybe you can say that, maybe.
But to me, I think Oats is a 2nd tier coach, and there is nothing wrong with that for most programs. UK the all-time GOAT program deserves 1st tier!!!
As for him maybe making his first F4, there is at least 1 coach making his first final 4 every year. Should I be excited over every one of those, some of whom struggle just a year or two later.
We are UK, we should swing for the fences for our coaches and players.
So would I “be happy” with Oats? No.
But would I “be ok” with Oats? Yes. As long as we swung for the fences first (i.e. Hurley, Stevens, Wright, Donovan).
That’s bound to be discussed in relation to him, but I don’t know that there’s much he could have done substantially differently.
None of the players on the scene that night had any known history of off court issues, so it’s not like he recruited time bombs and got the expected result.
As for the incident itself, that remains complicated to this day since the trial hasn’t started to fill in a few of the key unanswered questions, but I will say it’s a much murkier case than the initial reporting painted it as. The early narrative that Miles and his friend practically executed a girl for not flirting with them while Miller used his car to make sure she couldn’t get away was frankly BS. We now know with relative certainty that Miles and his friend initially backed off from the confrontation and the victim’s boyfriend seemed to seek them out and intentionally pulled up behind Miller’s car where they were after taking a detour to rendezvous with his gang member buddy. That’s not to say I think Miles and his friend are totally innocent based on what we know right now, just that it hasn’t been clearly established who the aggressor actually was contrary to early reports. I understand Miller’s close proximity to the shootout is uncomfortable for everyone including me, but after he had already cooperated with police and been cleared of wrongdoing, I’m not sure that suspending him was the slam dunk choice most people thought it was, and probably wasn’t a decision ultimately made by Oats at any rate.
The one thing you might could blame him for in that mess is the way he handled it in the media. Some of his comments came off as a bit too nonchalant about the whole thing, although even then, I wonder if the infamous “wrong place, wrong time” remark in regards to Miller would have set off quite the firestorm that it did if it wasn’t made at a moment when most people had only heard the inaccurate version of the story, which was initially difficult to question while maintaining good taste because the victim’s family was actively pushing it rather than making more generic calls for investigation and justice.
Tl:dr, I don’t think Oats actually had much to do with that mess, and I wouldn’t consider it disqualifying to him coaching here. I think he’d be a great choice after we’re free of Cal.
Around 2 years ago when his name first popped up I was against him at UK. I have changed my tune. I've seen growth from him as a coach as long as that continues I would be OK with him one day at UK. Still a bit too dependent on the 3 ball for me but he is adjusting.
You can really get a sense of the grasp of reality that our posters have by their “Tier 1” of coaching replacements:
Hurley - Completely understandable
Wright - Starting to stretch but worth a call
Donovan - Really starting to get out there, at this point you must just not feel like it’s a coaching search until he tells you no to start it off
Stevens - You’re an absolute nut, Stevens is a numbers dork that’s the President of the CELTICS. Are you going to call John Lynch and offer him Barnhart’s spot when he retires as well?
Hurley - Completely understandable
Wright - Starting to stretch but worth a call
Donovan - Really starting to get out there, at this point you must just not feel like it’s a coaching search until he tells you no to start it off
Stevens - You’re an absolute nut, Stevens is a numbers dork that’s the President of the CELTICS. Are you going to call John Lynch and offer him Barnhart’s spot when he retires as well?
This looked like it was going to be a down year for them compared to their recent success and it kinda was in regular season but here they are in the elite 8. If you look up his coaching philosophy, he’s an innovator in a way. Rupp was an innovator, Pitino was considered innovator, ofcourse Cal also in the one and done 😒
I'll take pretty much any top 35 coach at this point just to have a little hope for a couple years
I don’t like him personality wise, but if you make a list of possible coaches he starts to look much better. He’s gotta be a top 3 candidate. Cal had his issues too and he gave us a good run years ago.
Yeah I’d definitely love to have him here. If not this year, he prob comes as close as anyone to win a title over the next couple years. It would be great if that was at UK.
I’ll go back to my comment in the other thread and his nuclear lineup comment to Cal. It’s just a shame an opposing coach can understand our team better than its own coach can or wants to. Playing your most effective lineup the majority of the game shouldn’t be too much to ask of a 9m/year UK coach.
I’ll go back to my comment in the other thread and his nuclear lineup comment to Cal. It’s just a shame an opposing coach can understand our team better than its own coach can or wants to. Playing your most effective lineup the majority of the game shouldn’t be too much to ask of a 9m/year UK coach.
Pretty much where I am too.
He's not quite a slam dunk hire, IMO, but he is one of the names I hope is on our short list when we do finally get to bring in a new coach.
