How Nate Oats is Instilling Win-Or-Go-Home Mindset for NCAA Tournament

Alabama basketball is no longer promised a next game.

The Crimson Tide learned that it will be the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region of the 2026 NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday, and it'll face 13-seed Hofstra on March 20.

Unlike the regular season, if head coach Nate Oats and company lose in March Madness, they are done. The 2026-27 season would be the next step. So, how does Alabama establish a win-or-go-home mindset from here on out?

"One, they've got to realize it's it. You don't play well, you're done," Oats said on a Zoom press conference following Alabama's NCAA Tournament draw. "So I don't want pressure with that kind of mindset. I think there's a confidence that comes from being prepared and knowing that you put a lot of work into the season. But when you play hard and lose yourself in the game, the offense comes easy.

Alabama has a reputation on the line. The Crimson Tide is the only program in the country to reach the Elite Eight in back-to-back NCAA Tournaments. This includes the first Final Four appearance in school history.

Instilling the make-or-break mindset could take some time, which Alabama doesn't exactly have. But Oats' recent success in March Madness will be used as a tactic to motivate the Crimson Tide.

"We're going to reference some of these runs we made here in the past," Oats said. "I mean, you go back to that run we made two years ago to the Final Four, and you go back up to Spokane, we end up taking care of Charleston pretty well, but I believe we were a four-seed then that was the 13.

"We ended up playing Grand Canyon as a 12-seed in the second round, and they had a lead with six minutes to go in the game, if I recall correctly. So not a huge difference between a 12 and a 13."

But Oats may go back even further, as he was reminded of his time in upstate New York.

"I was a 13-seed at Buffalo our third year (the 2017-18 season) there," Oats said. "The second time we went to the tournament, we were a 13-seed, and I thought we were maybe a little better than a 13 and Hofstra probably feels the same way. And we ended up getting matched up against Arizona, who I thought was a lot better than a 4-seed. And you know, we came in popping. We were up 25 and put the walk-ons in with two minutes to go in the game."

If there's anything that the AP Top 25 was spot-on about this season, it was Alabama. The Crimson Tide was ranked as the No. 15 team in the Preseason AP Poll, and although it was quite the roller coaster in the rankings throughout the season, UA finished with that same rank before postseason play.

Alabama was No. 14 at the start of SEC play after finishing its nonconference slate with a 10-3 record. The Crimson Tide was 2-3 in ranked nonconference contests, with wins over then-No. 5 St. John's and then-No. 8 Illinois, but losses to then-No. 2 Purdue, then-No. 12 Gonzaga and then No. 1 Arizona.

But Alabama hit a wall after starting 4-4 in SEC play, as a two-week stretch of being absent from the AP Top 25 broke a ranked streak that started in January 2024. This was the tipping point for Oats and company, as the Crimson Tide proceeded to win eight straight games and clinch a double bye and the No. 2 seed in the SEC Tournament.

Despite having nearly a week without a game, Alabama fell to 15-seed Ole Miss 80-79 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal on Friday. Oats said he "would've liked to have seen us play with a win-or-go-home mentality" against the Rebels, but hopes it'll be a lesson.

"If you don't come with the right mentality, you're going to get sent home," Oats said. "And it's going to be a disappointing end to a season that had a lot of promise at the beginning. We had a solid year. We were the 2-seed in the SEC Tournament, we're a 4-seed in the NCAA tournament.

"That's solid. It's great for what was going on before we got here, but it's not good enough for what we want. We've got to make a deep run here."

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