Nate Oats speaks during a news conference introducing him as the new men's basketball coach at the University of Alabama on Thursday in Tuscaloosa.TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - Six years ago, Nate Oats was a high school coach and math teacher making a five-figure salary.
After a rapid ascent in the college basketball ranks at Buffalo, first as an assistant to Bobby Hurley and then as the Bulls' head coach, Oats is set to lead Alabama.
The Crimson Tide haven't kept pace in the Southeastern Conference as the league has grown stronger in recent years, but Oats has crunched the numbers and believes the program can make it to the Final Four - even though it never has.
"Obviously, the money doesn't hurt, but it's more about 'OK, how high a level can you take (the program)?'" Oats said Thursday after being formally introduced in Tuscaloosa. "I'd like to play for national championships. I'm a competitor, I'm ultra-competitive on everything.
"Can you do that here? Yeah, I believe you can. I mean, they proved it in I don't know how many other different sports. You go through the list of sports that have won national championships here, they've got a bunch of them. Football competes for it every year. There's no reason we can't get to that level."
Oats agreed to a five-year deal, but Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne declined to release financial terms of the contract. Oats replaces Avery Johnson, who made one NCAA tournament in four seasons before he and the program parted ways Sunday.
While Alabama has been to the NCAA tournament only twice since 2006, Buffalo made the field three times in Oats' four seasons since replacing Hurley. The Bulls went 32-4 this season and earned their second straight sweep of the Mid-American Conference's regular-season and tournament championships.
Oats' first recruiting visit at Alabama was with Kira Lewis Jr., who led the Tide in scoring as a freshman this season but is among the Alabama players who are reportedly exploring a possible transfer. He said Lewis stood out when he was watching video of the Tide before interviewing for the job.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure he's playing in an Alabama uniform next year," Oats said.
Guard Dazon Ingram has already announced plans to leave as a graduate transfer, and Oats said he "100 percent" has to recruit the current players.
Byrne announced the hiring Wednesday after spending five hours with Oats and his family in Buffalo. Byrne said he spoke with "several" candidates, but Oats' interview went on twice as long as any of the others.
Byrne reached out to Michigan State Tom Izzo, a friend of Alabama football coach Nick Saban since their days as young Spartans coaches, to pick his brain about potential candidates.
"As soon as Nate Oats came up, he was like, 'Hey, that guy's a grinder,' I think was his first words to me," Byrne said.
Oats said he attended "hundreds" of Michigan State practices as an assistant at Division III program Wisconsin-Whitewater and a high school coach in suburban Detroit. He also attended game-day shoot-arounds and walk-throughs at hotels on the road.
"As much as they would let me be involved in, that's how much I was involved at Michigan State," Oats said. "I had that much respect for what Tom Izzo did. I never worked for him, but he was great to me. He speaks really highly of Coach Saban."
Oats does, too. He said he has gone through every book, podcast and article he can find on Saban, who has won five national titles at Alabama and one at LSU.
"I'm a huge football fan," Oats said. "I'm a basketball junkie, but I'm a huge football fan."
Saban attended the introductory news conference but left without taking questions.
Oats plans to bring in Buffalo assistant Bryan Hodgson but said he believes both Hodgson and Jim Whitesell, who is the interim coach, will interview for the chance to succeed him as head coach of the Bulls.
As for Oats, he didn't necessarily promise a quick turnaround but believes Alabama has the resources to go deeper in the NCAA tournament than it has before. Wimp Sanderson, who led the Tide to the Sweet 16 six times from 1982 to '91, was on hand for Oats' introduction.
"They've never been to a Final Four here," Oats said, "but we can get to a Final Four."