Unless Hurley (or less probably Oats) jumps to the NBA, these two could be the dominant coaches of the next decade:
Battle of former high school coaches
Alabama's victory sets up a Final Four battle with the Huskies that will be a showdown between former high school coaches. Oats, who is in his fifth season with the Crimson Tide, spent a decade at Romulus High School in metropolitan Detroit after working as an assistant at Division III Wisconsin-Whitewater. He got his Division I break as an assistant at Buffalo in 2013 and was the head coach at Buffalo from 2015-19 before landing the Alabama job in 2019. Hurley also spent a decade in the prep ranks at St. Benedict's in New Jersey before breaking into the college ranks as the head coach at Wagner and Rhode Island. He's now in his sixth season leading the Huskies. Hurley, 51, and Oats, 49, have shared remarkably similar career trajectories, and have emerged as two of the best in their profession. The coaching battle will make for a compelling subplot to their game.
