“I know we’ll be underdogs. I know they’re the one seed. We understand all that. Our mindset is we go in, we do what we need to do with the game plan, and we’re going to get the win”. Nate Oats made it clear that he and his squad weren’t willing to go into the Elite Eight matchup against the Duke Blue Devils with a bout of overconfidence. Having led the Alabama Crimson Tide to the Final Four for the first time last year, Nate Oats wanted to repeat the feat by taking careful steps. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to best Cooper Flagg and co. In the end, the Duke squad walked away with the win through an 85-65 score. Having given talks about how Alabama needs to be careful on both the offensive and the defensive front, Oats had prepared the team as well as anyone could have. Unfortunately, guilt still overcame the coach.
Nate Oats participated in a post-game presser after his team’s elimination from the March Madness series. During the same, he complimented Duke for having great players and a coaching staff. Furthermore, Oats also added that “We’ve raised this program to a level where the standard is really high. 99% of college basketball players would trade places with these guys with the year we had, but we’re disappointed. We had bigger goals.”
“We’ve raised this program to a level where the standard is really high. 99% of college basketball players would trade places with these guys with the year we had, but we’re disappointed. We had bigger goals.” – Nate Oats after Alabama’s season-ending loss to Duke in the Elite 8 pic.twitter.com/caJYGtCVUk
— The Next Round (@NextRoundLive) March 30, 2025
The remarks from Oats came only a few weeks after he allegedly exaggerated his team’s standing. Prior to Selection Sunday, the Crimson Tide’s final seven games were a grind, as they were all against ranked opponents. All but two were top-15 games, and four were inside the top five. Therefore, even going 3-4 was more than good enough for Nate Oats. In fact, the three ranked wins gave the coach enough confidence to state that they were better than anything an ACC team had done this season. “We’ve had more top 25 wins in our last 7 games than any ACC school did the entire season,” said Oats. This was a direct shot at the ACC, and the Duke squad too. Duke won 28 games, but only 2 wins (Auburn and Louisville) came against teams ranked in the AP Top 25.
This is a developing story.
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