Labaron Philon Illustrates What It's Like to be Coached by Nate Oats

Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats preaches hustle so often that he created a scoring system that tracks a combination of numbers on and off the stat sheet.

Typically, the MVP of a game is awarded to the top scorer or someone who made an all-around impact. Alabama's Hard Hat is given to the player who receives the most blue-collar points for grabbing rebounds, diving for loose balls, reaching out for pass deflections, drawing charges and more.

The blue-collar system creates a massive incentive toward conditioning, which is why the Crimson Tide finished the 2024-25 season with the most possessions and points per game in the country.

"I would say it's not for the regular type of people," former Alabama guard Labaron Philon told The SchuZ Show when asked what it's like to be coached by Oats. "Just because he says some things that will make you be like, 'Whoa, did he really just say that?' But he's really just joking to see what would your response be.

"He used to get on me all the time, but I loved it. I took it like he was looking at me like one of his kids," Philon continued. "He always gave me pointers, trying to make the game look easier for me. I would say he stayed on me a lot. Never let me slack. He just made sure I did everything, really..."I loved his hard-coaching moments because I used to get rowdy for it. I used to be ready to go out there and play."

Philon just wrapped up his freshman season with the Crimson Tide a couple of weeks before announcing his declaration for the 2025 NBA Draft. The Mobile, Alabama native finished his first year of college basketball averaging 10.4 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and a Crimson Tide-best 1.3 steals per game.

"Playing for a coach like that––with the type of freedom he gives us and what kind of offense we ran––it was really fun playing in that," Philon said. "It was like playing pickup, really, with a lot of defense because we have sets that we like to run but in the first six seconds of the shot clock, if you can go get a bucket, he wouldn't be mad at all. If you can break off a play, he wouldn't be mad at all, as long as you get after it on the defensive end."

Nevertheless, Philon's one year at Alabama wasn't perfect as he explained that Oats would really get on him when he turned the ball over. However, Oats' yelling often kicks Philon into fifth gear.

"His way of firing me up sometimes was to cuss me out. It just had to happen, or he'll pull me to the side, tell me to my ear, 'It's go time.' I would say it was very fun, like, having somebody like that because most players don't like that type of coaching. They don't like the hard, hard coaching.

"I would say he coaches very hard, but it's all love at the end of the day. He still has everybody come over to his house for dinner and watch NBA games and football games. He's gonna be one of the best when it's all said and done," Philon said. "We don't know when he's gonna get his first championship, but I'm pretty sure he'll have multiple when it's all said and done."

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