Nate Oats on Managing Alabama Basketball's Roster Before 2021-2022 Season: "It's a Good Problem to Have"
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — After its best season in decades, that saw it win the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament title and make a run to the Sweet 16, Alabama basketball and coach Nate Oats are on the brink of finalizing its 2021-2022 roster, which is loaded with incoming talent.
The Crimson Tide added three signees on Wednesday, including Texas Tech transfer and former five-star recruit Nimari Burnett, Furman transfer Noah Gurley and 2021 center Charles Bediako.
Alabama's two-time 'Mr. Basketball', guard JD Davison, and wing Jusaun Holt signed during the early period. Sports Illustrated All-American ranks the Crimson Tide's 2021 class as fifth-best in the nation and second in the SEC behind Kentucky.
However, with returning players like guards Jaden Shackelford, Josh Primo, Jahvon Quinerly, and Keon Ellis and forwards Darius Miles, James Rojas, Juwan Gary, Keon Ambrose-Hylton and Alex Tchikou, Alabama remains one scholarship over the NCAA limit of 13 after JUCO transfer Langston Wilson was released from his national letter of intent.
Oats isn't new to the juggling act that is roster management in college basketball these days. Last season, four members of the Crimson Tide transferred to make way for the revamped roster that helped changed the narrative surrounding Alabama basketball.
“I feel like we handled this right last year,” Oats told the media via Zoom on Wednesday afternoon. “I think we’ve earned the right to let it play out and handle this. Some of these meetings are difficult meetings, but I think there are certain players that are better served to be in a different program for their own personal good. I don’t have an answer yet as to who won’t be here next year, but it’s a good problem to have. It’s still an issue. We’ve gotta deal with it. It’s not fun all the time.
"We’ll be down to the number we need to be down to when it needs to be there.”
Like last year, there could also be more shuffling of the roster via players testing the NBA draft waters. Oats says he expects some underclassmen to get feedback on where they stand among the professional ranks.
The deadline to apply early for the 2021 NBA draft is May 30 and the deadline to withdraw is July 19.
“I would expect some guys to,” Oats said. “Guys that are some of our better players that put up some good numbers, we’ve had some conversations. They’ve gotta put their name in. I’m not gonna go through and list everybody, but look at who put up some of our better numbers. To me, it probably makes sense to test the waters, get some feedback, and I don’t think it’s the worst thing either. I want guys that wanna be in the NBA. If you wanna be in the NBA, let’s get feedback from NBA people.
“If a guy’s got a guaranteed first-round contract, he probably needs to go. We’re here to make our players better, we’re here to make their future better. If you’ve got that type of guaranteed money, I’m not gonna convince you to come back if it’s not the best decision for you, your family, your future, your career. They’ve gotta get feedback like that on that stuff. I would expect there to be a few that would test it to see what they’ve got. But at the end of the day, if they don’t have a guaranteed first-round contract, most of the time it makes sense to come back and try to play your way up into it.”
Alabama's quartet of seniors from last season that included the SEC Player and Defensive Player of the Year, Herb Jones, John Petty Jr., Alex Reese and Jordan Bruner have the option to return for an extra year due to the NCAA's blanket wavier, but Jones has already declared for the NBA draft, Bruner is reportedly signing with an agent and Petty told Alabama fans goodbye on social media, so it wouldn't appear that an extra senior year is in the cards for them, as of now.
“None of them are planning on using that option right now, to be honest with you,” Oats said. “I think they’ve all had really good college careers. Alex Reese is on pace to graduate. Herb Jones has already graduated. John Petty’s on pace to graduate. Jordan Bruner graduated from Yale before he got here. He’s on pace to finish his master’s. The education part of it’s done. They’re now to the point where they can go make some money playing at different levels.
“I wouldn’t try to talk a kid into coming back to serve us and me. No, if it’s what’s best for the student-athlete to go make good money coming off a really good year then they need to go make money. I think with Herb, go make your money. You just were SEC Player of the Year. With John Petty, he came back last year to play his way up higher in the draft. He’s still got work to do here in the spring, but he had a really good career here. He’s probably done what he can do here, and it makes sense for him to move on. Bruner and Reese, I think, can go play at some level somewhere. They’ve got their degrees, they’ve got their education fulfilled.
“If it made sense to come back, I think you do it. But I think with most of these guys, I think it makes sense that they try to go start playing professionally and make some money doing it. They all have the option to come back. I would love to have any of the four of them back, but I don’t think it makes much sense at least for some of them.”
