Alabama has had a disappointing first season under head coach Nate Oats, and there will be no NCAA Tournament appearance for the Crimson Tide unless they pull off a string of historic upsets in the SEC Tournament. Oats has clearly been frustrated with the results, but his daughter says that does not mean he wants to leave the program already.
With speculation swirling that Oats is unhappy in Tuscaloosa, the coach’s daughter Alexandra took to Twitter on Sunday night to throw cold water on the rumors.
for everyone saying that you’ve heard various things such as that my family hates it here, etc… i can speak on behalf of MY family and say we love it here and we love the people of Tuscaloosa and we all love The University of Alabama and the opportunities that go along with it
— Alexandra Oats (@oats_lexie) March 9, 2020
Alabama is heading into the SEC Tournament with a record of 16-15 after losing to Missouri on Saturday. Following that game and the Tide’s previous loss to Vanderbilt, Oats openly questioned the effort of his players.
Alabama coach Nate Oats: "It's a pretty embarrassing effort on defense to close the game out with."
— Wilson Moore (@wilsmoore_) March 7, 2020
Alabama coach @nate_oats: “You’re going to get outplayed sometimes. That’s sports. But when the other team plays harder than you, that’s when I can’t sleep at night.”
— Cecil Hurt (@CecilHurt) March 4, 2020
It’s not unusual for a team to struggle in a head coach’s first year on the job, but the recent comments from Oats have made people wonder if he has already lost the locker room. When you couple that with the talk last year that he was thinking about leaving Alabama before even coaching a game, you can understand why people are wondering if Oats will be one-and-done with the Tide.
