Nate Oats Has to Tell Daughter ‘Ignore the Idiots’ on Social Media

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — It was a teaching moment for Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats, only this time it came at home with one of his kids.

Oats has three daughters, the oldest of which is 15. Apparently Lexi was traveling with her volleyball team when she saw some of the comments about Alabama and her family following the disappointing 69-50 loss at Missouri.

She took exception and responded on Twitter.

"Nobody's happy with the results of the last two games," Oats said. "I'm as irritated and frustrated as anyone. For fans to be frustrated is one thing, but for them to say that what they said, whoever the irresponsible fans were, it is what it is. I tried to explain that."

Alabama is limping into this week's SEC Tournament in Nashville, where the Crimson Tide will be seeded ninth or 10th for the sixth time in seven years. The Crimson Tide opens against eight-seeded Tennessee on Thursday at noon (SEC Network).

Although Alabama hasn't won back-to-back games since January, it needs to string together a run this week to land an NCAA Tournament spot.

Coming off a 87-79 home loss to Vanderbilt, the Commodores' only league win in two years, the Missouri loss was the low point of the season. Even Oats commented, "When the other team plays harder than you, that’s when I can’t sleep at night.”

Thus, the negative criticism on social media, which unfortunately has become the norm.

"We just block that stuff out," freshman guard Jaden Shackelford said. "People are going to say what they're going to say."

Shrugging it off comes with the territory, and with the job.

"Some of these people probably have no followers, who cares?" Oats said, noting that the spotlight is obviously a lot brighter than at his previous career stop, Buffalo.

"There's perks to having this job and there are idiots. When you respond to idiots you actually give them some credence, like someone's paying attention to them. Just don't pay attention to them."

His advice to her was pretty simple: "Ignore the idiots."

for everyone saying that you’ve heard various things such as that my family hates it here, etc... i can speak on behalf of MY family and say we love it here and we love the people of Tuscaloosa and we all love The University of Alabama and the opportunities that go along with it
— lex (@oats_lexie) March 9, 2020

"I thought her actual tweet was good," he said. "We do love it here."

"I don't mind if she sticks up for the family. We also told her she's going to have to ignore some idiots with your dad being in the job he's in."