Nate Oats’ drive to work Tuesday morning brought back a sense of familiarity. While most Tuscaloosa, Ala. residents were tucked away inside their homes and away from the below-freezing temperatures, the Watertown, Wis. native received a brief reminder of his past life up north.
“We would call this a dusting up where I’m from,” said Oats, who spent four seasons as Buffalo’s basketball coach before taking over Alabama last season. “You know, it was like a ghost town out there this morning. Up north when it snows, you kind of check the roads out, spin them a little, see how bad they are. The roads seemed pretty fine on my way in this morning, but it seemed like nobody else wanted to drive this morning.”
Oats might be fine with the frigid front moving across the South. However, the change in weather has caused some complications for the Alabama basketball team. Monday evening, the SEC announced several changes to this week’s schedule due to the icy weather that is moving throughout the region. Of the rescheduled matchups, No. 8 Alabama’s game at Texas A&M was moved from Wednesday night to Thursday at 2 p.m. CT.
Despite the extra day of preparation, Alabama’s travel plans have also been thrown into a bit of disarray due to the weather. While Oats’ drive into the office was worry-free Tuesday morning, the same can't be said about the roads in College Station, Texas, where the weather is expected to be even more severe Wednesday night.
During his Tuesday Zoom call with reporters, Oats said Alabama was planning on traveling later in the day. However, the team is currently having a hard time putting together a flight crew.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed, hopefully, get down to College Station tonight and then we’ll have a full day down there and then play that afternoon game Thursday and then get back,” Oats said. “That’s the plan right now.”
Even if Alabama is able to make it down to Texas in time to beat the worsening weather, the change in schedule presents a challenging situation for the Crimson Tide as it now has just one day in between its road game against the Aggies on Thursday and its home matchup against Vanderbilt on Saturday.
During his weekly radio show Monday, Oats pointed out the difficulties in preparing for two games in three days. However, Tuesday the head coach said his team is ready to “roll with the punches” and control what it can control.
According to Oats, that starts with a full-focused approach to Thursday’s game against Texas A&M.
“The staff’s job is to be ready to go when it’s time to be ready to go,” Oats said. “The players shouldn’t take one peek at Vanderbilt until the Texas A&M game is done. They shouldn’t think one second about Vanderbilt. The staff works ahead, the GAs, the assistants, all that. I don’t even work ahead, so the players are not gonna be looking ahead. We won’t even think about Vanderbilt until the Texas A&M [game] is over.”
Added guard Keon Ellis: “I think it just gives us more time to prep for [Texas A&M]. It will be a quick turnaround after we do play Texas A&M straight into Vanderbilt. It just helps us prep more for this game, and we just need to focus in when we get to Vanderbilt after this game.”
While the plan is to treat things as normally as possible, Oats said there will be some changes in how his team prepares this week. Typically, the head coach takes part in what he calls “clean up” following games, going over his team’s mistakes while the rest of his staff prepares for the next opponent. The process will be streamlined following the game against Texas A&M as Oats and the rest of the staff will shift their attention exclusively to Vanderbilt.
As for Alabama players, Oats said they will be able to study the game plan for Vanderbilt on the flight back home to Tuscaloosa on Thursday night before taking part in a walk-through practice on Friday. Alabama is set to host Vanderbilt on Saturday at noon.
One possible advantage of the scheduling quirk is how it can help Alabama prepare for the postseason. The Tide is currently projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and was tabbed as the No. 7 overall seed by the tournament committee during its bracket preview over the weekend. If Alabama is going to make a deep run in the tournament, it will have to get used to winning two games in a three-day span.
“This is what you’ve got in the NCAA Tournament,” Oats said. “You’ve gotta play Thursday-Saturday or you’ve gotta play Friday-Sunday. So it’s great preparation for an NCAA Tournament run. If you want to get to the second weekend, you’ve gotta be able to win both of them.”
“We would call this a dusting up where I’m from,” said Oats, who spent four seasons as Buffalo’s basketball coach before taking over Alabama last season. “You know, it was like a ghost town out there this morning. Up north when it snows, you kind of check the roads out, spin them a little, see how bad they are. The roads seemed pretty fine on my way in this morning, but it seemed like nobody else wanted to drive this morning.”
Oats might be fine with the frigid front moving across the South. However, the change in weather has caused some complications for the Alabama basketball team. Monday evening, the SEC announced several changes to this week’s schedule due to the icy weather that is moving throughout the region. Of the rescheduled matchups, No. 8 Alabama’s game at Texas A&M was moved from Wednesday night to Thursday at 2 p.m. CT.
Despite the extra day of preparation, Alabama’s travel plans have also been thrown into a bit of disarray due to the weather. While Oats’ drive into the office was worry-free Tuesday morning, the same can't be said about the roads in College Station, Texas, where the weather is expected to be even more severe Wednesday night.
During his Tuesday Zoom call with reporters, Oats said Alabama was planning on traveling later in the day. However, the team is currently having a hard time putting together a flight crew.
“We’ll keep our fingers crossed, hopefully, get down to College Station tonight and then we’ll have a full day down there and then play that afternoon game Thursday and then get back,” Oats said. “That’s the plan right now.”
Even if Alabama is able to make it down to Texas in time to beat the worsening weather, the change in schedule presents a challenging situation for the Crimson Tide as it now has just one day in between its road game against the Aggies on Thursday and its home matchup against Vanderbilt on Saturday.
During his weekly radio show Monday, Oats pointed out the difficulties in preparing for two games in three days. However, Tuesday the head coach said his team is ready to “roll with the punches” and control what it can control.
According to Oats, that starts with a full-focused approach to Thursday’s game against Texas A&M.
“The staff’s job is to be ready to go when it’s time to be ready to go,” Oats said. “The players shouldn’t take one peek at Vanderbilt until the Texas A&M game is done. They shouldn’t think one second about Vanderbilt. The staff works ahead, the GAs, the assistants, all that. I don’t even work ahead, so the players are not gonna be looking ahead. We won’t even think about Vanderbilt until the Texas A&M [game] is over.”
Added guard Keon Ellis: “I think it just gives us more time to prep for [Texas A&M]. It will be a quick turnaround after we do play Texas A&M straight into Vanderbilt. It just helps us prep more for this game, and we just need to focus in when we get to Vanderbilt after this game.”
While the plan is to treat things as normally as possible, Oats said there will be some changes in how his team prepares this week. Typically, the head coach takes part in what he calls “clean up” following games, going over his team’s mistakes while the rest of his staff prepares for the next opponent. The process will be streamlined following the game against Texas A&M as Oats and the rest of the staff will shift their attention exclusively to Vanderbilt.
As for Alabama players, Oats said they will be able to study the game plan for Vanderbilt on the flight back home to Tuscaloosa on Thursday night before taking part in a walk-through practice on Friday. Alabama is set to host Vanderbilt on Saturday at noon.
One possible advantage of the scheduling quirk is how it can help Alabama prepare for the postseason. The Tide is currently projected as a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament and was tabbed as the No. 7 overall seed by the tournament committee during its bracket preview over the weekend. If Alabama is going to make a deep run in the tournament, it will have to get used to winning two games in a three-day span.
“This is what you’ve got in the NCAA Tournament,” Oats said. “You’ve gotta play Thursday-Saturday or you’ve gotta play Friday-Sunday. So it’s great preparation for an NCAA Tournament run. If you want to get to the second weekend, you’ve gotta be able to win both of them.”
