I remember that same talk when Rick Pitino built Providence around the 3pt shot. "That won't work" "You can get lucky......" and look how things turned out. So which is it--the SEC has just started to invest in basketball where Oats has succeeded (2 regular season and 2 Conference Tournament Championships in 5 yrs) in his first power conference job while everyone in SEC now cares but really it's not a big deal because playing 18 conference games and then winning the tournament isn't too impressive, because it's a fluke. I call BS on that. If you want to say you don't like him/how they play, that's fine, your opinion. He's 5 yrs into his job there and in addition to the SEC championships they've been to a level in the NCAA's they never consistently reached 3x in 5 yrs. But that's also a fluke? Come on.
If you get talent, you can accomplish things. What Oats is doing there continues to get shit on for some reason, which seems strange? He's succeeded as a HS coach. Succeeded at Buffalo, doing things that are sustaining at Alabama. But if he went to Kentucky where he'd have more resources/invested fanbase, he'd fail. Fans are furious how Cal treats the SEC and SEC Tournament (which I fully am in line with the fans-this is Kentucky you win everything you can as the standard) but a guy at Bama does it and it's fluky and not impressive?
Think he's on the cusp and you keep knocking on the door, eventually you break through. He's getting his staff Head Coaching jobs--4 in the last 2 yrs have been promoted to HC jobs in CBB. He's winning games and going to levels that you would want as an AD--specifically with Bama's history and in the most competitive and committed the SEC has been--again you also stated that SEC now cares about basketball. I like him-don't think he'll ever be the HC here but should've been this year if Barnhart handled this correctly-which we know he wouldn't because he's a jackass.