‘Penciled in history’
Alabama men revel in first Final Four berth
“I certainly think this could be a springboard to a lot of other great things ahead.
Athletic director Greg Byrne
LOS ANGELES – Alabama guard Rylan Griffen looked up at an imaginary wall and thought about all the legendary athletes and teams that have been at Tuscaloosa. There’s Heisman Trophy winners. Hall of Famers. National champions.
Now he and his teammates will be among those names for being responsible for Alabama achieving its first men’s basketball Final Four in school history.
“We get penciled in history,” Griffen said.
It’s a major accomplishment for a program that has long lived in the shadow of its football team and located in a place where sports rule. Not only is football good, but so is softball, gymnastics and golf, with all those sports making finals and, most important, winning national championships.
Now this team can add itself to the list.
“We want to be great in whatever we do. It’s the University of Alabama; we should be,” athletic director Greg Byrne told USA TODAY Sports. “People care about the University of Alabama like no other, and so it’s really cool to see that happen on the basketball court.”
It was another outstanding offensive performance from Alabama on March 30, but with a twist. The Crimson Tide didn’t come out shooting great. It started 6-for-27 from the field and 1-for-13 from 3-point land. All the makings of a lackluster performance.
But the twist was Alabama was making Clemson work offensively, something not seen much from the Crimson Tide this season. Clemson didn’t shoot the ball well in the first half either, and Alabama’s defense prevented Clemson from ever getting too far ahead. Then the Alabama offense found rhythm. It went on a 22-6 run to end the first half, and from there that’s when the offense did the rest.
The Crimson Tide made 16 of their 23 second-half shots. The Tide made 10 3pointers.
“We can have the No. 1 offense in the country; we had it for the majority of the year,” said Alabama head coach Nate Oats. “Let’s put a top-20 defense together and we can make a Final Four. I think we did that.”
Even though the men’s basketball team was in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth season in a row, Byrne knew some improvements were needed to make the Final Four. Alabama needed to sharpen up its defense since it was in the bottom of the country in scoring defense.
The defense did enough to let its offense flourish in the tournament.
Oats’ coaching this postseason is likely what Byrne envisioned when he hired him in 2019. When he offered him the position, Byrne said he told the former Buffalo coach to remember his beginnings when he was coaching basketball and teaching math classes at Romulus High School in Michigan. Remember when he sold “Capri Suns and Cheetos” out of his office during that time so he had money to take his team on trips. If Oats didn’t forget that humility, then Byrne believed he was capable of achieving greatness with the Crimson Tide.
When Oats took the job at Alabama, he couldn’t deny football lived in the spotlight, and other sports were also winning titles. So he made it his mission to get the basketball team to the same level. Even going into this season, the basketball team was having winning seasons, but it hadn’t achieved a Final Four, something Oats felt would validate the team.
So Oats used his resources to his advantage. He tried to learn everything he could from seven-time national championship winning football coach Nick Saban. Oats would watch football practices, sit on staff meetings, go on his road trips and even shadowed him. Quotes from Saban would consistently be used by Oats. He figured if he could just see how a coach consistently in the national championship picture operates, it would benefit his team.
“I love the fact that we’re a football school, and we’re going to try to add another sport to the championship school level because I think we’re knocking on the door there,” Oats said. “Only 18 national championships behind them. We have a few to catch up.
“Let’s just keep grinding. Let’s get to a Final Four first, and let’s put ourselves on a big stage.”