What will it take for Alabama basketball to keep Nate Oats long-term? | Kelly

Alabama basketball fans often don’t have to go to the Arby’s a few blocks from Coleman Coliseum anymore.

They can, and some still do. But a classic “Beef ‘N Cheddar” and curly fries aren’t needed much these days to cover up the taste of bad to mediocre Tide hoops. That’s because of Nate Oats.

Alabama doesn’t win every game, but it no longer comes down to a hope and a prayer that the Crimson Tide will be able to compete with the best of the best. Bubble watch seems to have become a thing of the past. Even in a season after Alabama replaced its entire coaching staff and lost most of its roster, the Crimson Tide remained in contention for the SEC deep into the season and is in line for a No. 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Oats has had a No. 2 seed, a No. 6 seed and a No. 1 seed in March Madness, and he’s won four SEC championships. Those (soon-to-be) four NCAA Tournament appearances in four years are as many as Alabama had in the 15 seasons prior to his arrival.

With his continued success, will Alabama be able to keep Oats? And if so, what will be required to do so long-term?

Oats has built far more than a one-and-done program. Some years are better than others, but it’s at the point now that none are bad. Good basketball is not just a pleasant surprise; it’s the expectation.

Oats has constructed an annual contender, a system that isn’t reliant on one or two players. Players can leave, staff can depart yet the program endures in the top echelon of the SEC.

Alabama would be wise to keep Oats, the constant, around. Athletics director Greg Byrne certainly knows that.

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Byrne and the powers that be know they’ve got a good thing going with the current Alabama basketball coach. The question surely on the minds of those who have their hands in such things: What will it take to keep Oats?

It might not be a problem in the short-term. Alabama took a big step with his contract a year ago. The buyout Oats would owe UA if he left is colossal. It just dropped Friday by $2 million, but his buyout is still $10 million. Seemingly astronomical football contract numbers make that buyout sound small, but it’s not. That’s a lot of basketball dollars. Few programs would or could pay that for Oats on top of what it would also have to pay him to hire him away. Maybe a program like a Kentucky could pony up that cash, but even so, that’s not terribly likely.

So, barring some kind of surprise or huge spending spree, Oats figures to be in Tuscaloosa for the short-term. But what will it take to keep him in the long-term?

Support, to put it simply.

If Oats feels basketball is supported in football-heaven Tuscaloosa, that is sure to go a long way toward keeping him around. I’ve never gotten the sense Oats wants to leave Alabama basketball. Add in the fact that he has three daughters in school at UA or in Tuscaloosa, and he has plenty of family reasons to want to stick around too. “We've moved enough,” Oats said when he signed his most recent extension. “We wanted to be here.”

Nonetheless, the Crimson Tide should make sure he doesn’t have a reason to depart.

That support takes multiple forms. NIL support sits far and away atop the list. That, more than anything, is the resource required to be a competitor in the SEC right now. It’s scary to think the kind of teams Oats could put together with one of SEC’s top NIL budgets.

That support can also be a strong assistant coach salary pool so he can retain and hire top staff. The support can also be facility upgrades that aren’t necessarily a whole new arena.

A new arena would be nice, and it would be great for the fans. If the funds can be procured to build it, it should be. It probably wouldn’t hurt in the cause toward keeping Oats, but it doesn’t seem to be an absolute requirement. It’s highly unlikely that anytime soon, Oats walks into Byrne’s office, pounds the table and demands: “Build the arena or I’m out.”

Oats has won plenty at Coleman Coliseum, losing only one SEC game there the past two seasons. Heck, he could probably win games on a court at a local park.

As for Oats’ compensation, his extension moved him into the top four in the SEC among men’s basketball coaches. It’s also set to increase each year by $200,000. He ranks No. 10 in the country for his compensation this season. Also, I’ve never gotten the sense that UA would let compensation get in the way of keeping Oats.

Despite all that, so long as Oats continues to succeed and win basketball games, his name will keep popping up for college basketball openings. That’s no different this week with new open jobs such as Louisville and Michigan, the latter of which is in the state where Oats once coached high school basketball. He’s already been a name on some of those candidate hot boards.

Alabama should do everything in its power to keep his name off any candidate lists, otherwise the local Arby’s might see an uptick in business.

Nick Kelly is the Alabama beat writer for The Tuscaloosa News, part of the USA TODAY Network, and he covers Alabama football and men's basketball. Reach him at nkelly@gannett.com or follow him @_NickKelly on X, the social media app formerly known as Twitter.

This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Nate Oats: How can Alabama basketball keep him long-term? | Kelly