re: Grant Nelson officially returning to Bama for his final season of basketball eligibility

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Yeah not really comparable. Nate’s a good coach and turned Bama around quickly but Bruce had a Tony Barbee mess to clean up. Avery wasn’t much of coach but he brought in some talent for Nate to use and build from.

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That’s true, but that still doesn’t explain the last 5 years. There’s literally no way to slice this where Bruce comes out as the better coach right now. If he gets to the F4 this year and Oats doesn’t, then maybe he’s back in the conversation with being on par (has to get to 2nd weekend first). But after this F4 run, Oats’ success has been better than Pearl’s any logical way you look at it (logical as in not counting double the coaching years for Bruce to make him look even since he’s like 20 yrs older). Has Bruce ever had the overall #1 seed in the Tournament? Has he ever won both the regular season and conf tournament in the same year (Oats has twice)? It’s not comparable right now, but Pearl is still a good coach and a F4 run this year could change the narrative if he can pull it off.