Local paper: can Nate Oats turn Alabama into a basketball school?

[Smashcat]

Hasn’t he already?😐

Can Nate Oats make Alabama a basketball school? Or does football loom too large?

Alabama has been a football school for 100 years. Can Nate Oats make it a basketball school, too? Or has he already done it? An in-depth look.

www.tuscaloosanews.com

 

[YardCat]

I guess if the football team craps the bed for a few years.

 

[CrimsonCats]

The answer to that question mostly comes down to how you define “basketball school”. If you take that to mean somewhere that basketball is the marquee sports attraction, then the chances of him surpassing the football program are exactly zero.

If you just use that to mean a school that can sustain success and be a perennial contender in basketball, I think he’s already done that. The administration has been willing to spend enough money to keep him onboard and upgrade their facilities, so that’s not an issue, and he’s already fielded nationally relevant teams with at least three different core groups of players, so you can’t say they just caught lightning in a bottle with a particular recruiting class. There’s no reason to think they won’t be a factor in most years in the near future.

 

[ImTheVillageIdiot]

I’ll answer this one….unequivocally NO. Oates is bound to win a natty or two before long but in the state of Alabama, football will always be king. That’s completely fine and doesn’t diminish their basketball efforts. Alabama has decades upon decades of football memories, and their tradition of love for football was passed generation to generation. Basketball is trying to build that type of culture but they are decades behind football in terms of interest and prestige.

 

[Dontworryboutit23]

My buddy who goes/went to UNC thinks they will fire Davis eventually and throw eveything at oats to come to UNC.

 

[BlueWorldOrder74]

Hell no. He can make them relevant annually, but once spring practice starts it’s over. Now, maybe if their football team falls off for two decades, maybe.