LOS ANGELES — Nate Oats has Nick Saban on speed dial.
Yet when it comes to seeking wisdom, the Alabama men's basketball coach hasn't stopped with the recently retired college football legend, whose seven career national championships included six during his 17 seasons in Tuscaloosa coaching the Crimson Tide. And with his team reeling heading into the NCAA tournament in mid-March, Oats knew he needed as much input as possible
The results speak for themselves.
Thanks to a four-game winning streak, the Tide (25-11) are making the program's first appearance in the Final Four, set to face the University of Connecticut (35-3) — the Huskies are both the reigning national champions and the No. 1 overall seed of this year's tourney — next Saturday in Glendale, Ariz.
The Tide won the NCAA's West Region as its No. 4 seed, ousting 13th-seeded Charleston and 12th-seeded Grand Canyon in Spokane, Washington, during the first weekend of March Madness, then moving on to Los Angeles and taking down top-seeded North Carolina in the Sweet 16 this past Thursday before beating third-seeded Clemson 89-82 in the Elite Eight on Saturday night.
Alabama was the NCAA's overall No. 1 seed a year ago after sweeping the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles for the second time in three years, but the Tide didn't survive the Sweet 16, losing to a fifth-seeded San Diego State team that would wind up reaching the tournament title game. This year's Elite Eight appearance was only the second overall for the program, which fell short of the Final Four in its first try 20 years ago.
Just two weeks ago, nothing about this team suggested a deep run was a sure thing.
"The best team doesn't always win, because it's a one-game elimination tournament," Oats said. "You've got to be hot at the right time. And we looked like we were not hot at the right time."
Alabama entered the NCAA tourney having lost four of its previous six games, with three of those defeats by 14 points or more. After falling to Florida in the SEC quarterfinals in Nashville — it was the Tide's only game in the league tournament, having earned a double bye in the 14-team bracket as the No. 3 seed — Oats spent the weekend before the NCAA's 68-team bracket was revealed picking the brains of former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, whose time with the Orange included five Final Four trips and the 2003 national championship, and current Massachusetts coach Frank Martin, who led South Carolina to the Final Four in 2017.
Both coaches had taken teams on deep tourney runs after struggling late in the regular season. Oats also got advice from Saban and used that to his advantage.
"He kind of gave me the 'Next' idea: next, next, next," Oats said of what has become the team's tourney mantra. "So guys bought in. We can make this run. Other teams have done it. We have the capability to do it. ... We can have the No. 1 offense in the country; we had it for the majority of the year. Let's put a top-20 defense together, and we can make a Final Four."
Since arriving in Tuscaloosa in 2019 after four seasons with three NCAA tourney trips at Buffalo, Oats hasn't been afraid or concerned about being overshadowed by Saban and the football program. The 49-year-old basketball coach also asked Patrick Murphy, who has led Alabama's softball program to four national championships, to speak to his team in January. Murphy's hour-long talk was about the concept of "Mudita," which means having vicarious joy in someone else's success.
The only thing Oats is worried about in relation to Saban is that he uses too many of his quotes.
"I'm going to pick the brains of all the ultrasuccessful coaches throughout the department. We've got multiple coaches, current coaches, that have won national championships, whether it's men's golf, women's golf, softball," Oats said. "But Coach Saban — I'm a big football fan. I came to Alabama loving the fact that I was going to be able to work in the same athletic department as arguably the best, maybe not even the best football coach, the best coach of any team sport in modern history, or college sports, anything, and I didn't want to bother him. But I certainly picked his brain when it was appropriate."
Oats has matched Saban when it comes to rebuilding a roster and surpassing expectations. Going into this season, Oats had only three returning players. He also had to replace three assistant coaches after they got head coaching jobs, something Saban dealt with regularly, too.
Mark Sears emerged as the Tide's leader and was an AP All-America second-team selection. He was voted the West Region's most outstanding player after scoring 23 points against Clemson, including seven 3-pointers.
Alabama also got key contributions from the newcomers. Freshman Jarin Stevenson, who entered Saturday averaging 5.0 points this season, had a career-high 19. Grant Nelson, a transfer from North Dakota State, was solid again after taking over the final 10 minutes of the win over North Carolina two days earlier.
"He's just a great coach all-around," said senior Aaron Estrada, a transfer from Hofstra. "He lost a lot from last year. So just for him to rebuild a group like he got us ... it just goes to show how hardworking he is and how much of a competitor he is as well."
The next task will be to figure out how to stop UConn in the national semifinals. The Huskies' four wins in this year's tourney have come by an average of 27.8 points, including a 77-52 rout of Illinois in the East Region final Saturday night in Boston.
While preparing for the Huskies is a formidable task, Oats took a couple of minutes after the win over Clemson to acknowledge that his ascent up the college coaching ranks has been "surreal."
"You go back 11 years, and I won a state championship at Romulus (High School) in the Detroit area. It hasn't been that long," he said. "I don't know if it's truly hit me yet. It probably won't hit me until after the Final Four is over, because I'm going to enjoy it tonight, and we've got to figure out how to beat UConn."