re: Nate MF’n Oats - best coach in the SEC

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Seriously? How many adjustments does Oats ACTUALLY make in a game when Sears and Grant are carrying the team.

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Seriously: Oats isn't a coach that really tinkers and makes adjustments nearly as much as most. He mainly teaches his system, recruits for that system and sticks with that system.


I'd venture to say that every close game Alabama has won under him has had a moment like the closing stretch against UNC:
UNC went on a 6 point run to take the lead ending with a thunderous fast break dunk. UNC fans were going nuts, they had all the 'momentum' and players started chest bumping and exhorting the crowd.

Conventional wisdom is call a TO and calm things down and almost every coach follows that. Oats instead is screaming to push it and Bama answers with a ultra-quick 3 pointer to take back the lead. That's the hectic pace he's coached and recruited to thrive in.

Sometimes that doesn't work but it's a good reminder that his "adjustment" is often letting the game plan play out and resisting adjustments.


That said, in the final minutes of UNC game Oats called the clear out and pick and roll between Sears and Nelson -- since you mention those two -- to get Nelson on Sears smaller defender and drive him to the rim that resulted in the +1 that put Bama in the drivers seat for the final minute.