There was a time in the not so distant past where a run to the Elite Eight for the Alabama Crimson Tide would have been celebrated as one of the biggest accomplishments in the program’s history and fans would have been absolutely thrilled.
Such is the nature of the raising of the bar head coach Nate Oats has done for basketball in Tuscaloosa.
While most Tide fans will likely in time be able to look back on this season as a success coming off another high seed in the NCAA Tournament, a third straight trip to the second weekend and back-to-back Elite Eight appearances, Oats has done such an incredible job since being hired in 2019 that it feels like something is missing following Alabama’s domination against Duke to fall short of another Final Four.
Oats spoke about the disappointment of falling short but reflected on the fact of how far this program has come during his press conference after the defeat on Saturday night:
“We’ve established ourselves as one of the best programs. Put ourselves up there, and we’re gonna continue to do that, be one of the teams competing for Final 4’s, national championships, we’ll get back to the Final 4 and win one here soon.”
– Oatspic.twitter.com/jNKmfuaC5s
— 🐘🏀 (@UARoundballGuy) March 30, 2025
“I don’t know if there’s been a better three-year run in Alabama history. While it was disappointing for the standards we have set, most teams in the country didn’t set the standards as high as we set them,” Oats said.
“With the standard of excellence we’ve set across all of college basketball, we have established ourselves as one of the best programs in the country…We’ve put ourselves up there, and we’re gonna continue to do that year in and year out, keep knocking on the door, be one of the teams competing for Final Fours, national championships, conference championships in the best conference in college basketball every year and we’ll get back to the Final 4 and win one here soon.”
In just six seasons in Tuscaloosa, Oats has already become the program’s winningest NCAA Tournament head coach in its history, bringing Alabama to a Final Four, the Elite Eight twice, and the Sweet Sixteen four times along with two SEC regular season titles and two SEC Tournament titles.
Of course the result on Saturday night was disappointing, but Oats has this program as one of the best in the entire sport of college basketball and it certainly does not seem like they’re going anywhere anytime soon.
