The Alabama Crimson Tide’s season has come to an end after a third consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearance and back-to-back trips to the Elite Eight, ultimately falling shy of a return trip to the Final Four.
While it’s a disappointing way for the season to end, it’s easy to forget how far Head Coach Nate Oats has brought the program in just six short seasons.
What may be even more impressive than the Tide’s rise under Oats, however, is his ascension from a high school math teacher to a head coach of an emerging powerhouse program.
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Prior to his time in Tuscaloosa, Oats coached the Buffalo Bulls and turned the team into one of the best mid-major programs in the sport. Under Oats, the Bulls regularly made the NCAA Tournament, winning first-round games in each of his final two years there.
Before joining the Bulls staff as an assistant in 2013, Oats was both the head coach and math teacher at Romulus High School in Michigan. Romulus was not known as a basketball powerhouse, but they certainly became one under Oats. Compiling a record of 222–52 during his time as head coach, Oats took the Romulus Eagles to five Final Fours and finally won a state title in his last season there in 2013.
Oats’ reputation of working tirelessly for his players began with his arrival at the school.
While at Romulus, Oats and his team competed against powerhouse high school programs that had more money and resources available, leaving a significant gap in cash on hand for the Eagles.
Oats solved the issue by essentially running a corner convenience store out of his classroom, selling to students snacks like Hot Cheetos and granola bars and drinks like Capri Sun and Gatorade, something he described to Pete Thamel in a 2019 Yahoo Sports article written just weeks before he would take the job at Alabama.
The corner store, dubbed by the students as “Nate’s Party Store,” became so popular that Oats eventually had to convert a sprinter van and take the seats out so he could make runs to the store twice a week to fill it with more snacks.
Every dime went back into his program, and Oats estimates he was bringing in at least $500 a week. The fundraising account was up to over $20,000 by the time he left.
Perhaps the most impressive thing he was able to do for the Eagles program was provide it with six shooting gun machines, something he believes to this day is key towards developing players as shooters in the three-point heavy system he employs.
Oats’ story of relentless drive to make his team better and bring a program from the basement all the way to glory is a snapshot of what makes him so great as a coach and the reason Alabama has become as successful a program as it is.
And he’s just getting started.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
