Nate Oats: “I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t have an SEC Tournament"
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — To put it lightly, No. 8 Alabama men’s basketball coach Nate Oats hopes that an SEC Tournament will be played.
And why shouldn’t he? His Crimson Tide is the No. 8 team in the nation and if the season were to end today, it would be the 1-seed in the conference tournament.
With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there has been small surge of individuals composing of fans, coaches and media members that have begun calling for the cancellation of conference tournaments.
Oats, however, still hopes that his team will be playing in Nashville come March 10-14.
“Man I sure hope so,” Oats said in a press conference on Tuesday morning. “I don’t know when the last time we won is but I’d like to be able to have the chance to win it. I think they’re gonna play. I don’t see any reason why they wouldn’t to be honest with you. It’s not like the testing is anything new. We’re testing three times a week right now. We’re playing half our games on the road so we just take our travel party that’s been testing three times a week all year. Take them up to Nashville, and you play the games.”
Oats logic is sound. After all, at the end of the regular season his Alabama squad will have just wrapped up playing 18 SEC games.
So why the sudden momentum behind canceling conference tournaments? In a college sports year unlike any other, the coronavirus continues to spread among teams. This raises concerns among the programs as to if playing conference tournaments and potentially increasing the spread instead of giving the teams a week off to quarantine before March Madness is ultimately the right call.
In a survey conducted by CBS Sports, 41 college basketball coaches from both large and small conferences were asked if conference tournaments should be played. Of those 41, 27 percent of them said that no, they should not be played.
One of those coaches that voted against a conference tournament was Frank Martin of South Carolina. To him, the tournament is pointless after 18 grueling SEC games and said that it's ultimately just played for the money that the SEC makes from it.
"I've never understood conference tournaments," Martin told CBS. "After beating the living you-know-what out of each other for two and a half months? I get why it's done. Money. I wouldn't be against taking a deep breath this year and saying, 'You know what, let's utilize that time to try and make up games for the ones we missed and let's just crown a regular-season champion."
However, Oats believes that playing the SEC Tournament and giving his team an opportunity for its first conference tournament title since 1991 is the right move.
“To me, if you’re planning on having an NCAA Tournament the next week then why can’t you have an SEC Tournament the week before?” Oats said. “I’d be very disappointed if we didn’t have an SEC Tournament and I have not heard any discussion from anybody at the SEC office, any or our administrators, any other coaches on not having it so I sure hope we’re having it.”
