The Alabama basketball program just completed its most successful season in program history, and the bill has hit hard. The Tide were the champions of the SEC in the regular season as well as the post-season tournament and went on to become the No. 1 overall seed in the 2023 March Madness tournament. The Tide was led by Nate Oats, who is obviously a great coach, but also Brandon Miller and three great assistant coaches.
As a top 10 player in the country, it was always likely that Brandon Miller was going to be a one-and-done player, so the departure didn’t shock anyone, but it will still hurt. He was the SEC Player of the Year, SEC Rookie of the Year, and a consensus second-team All-American. Miller is now on his way to being a top-three pick in the 2023 NBA draft.
The unsung heroes of the season were Alabama’s three assistants who were massive pieces of the puzzle. All three were excellent on the recruiting trail and very good situationally, so much so that they were each hired for head coaching jobs after the season. Bryan Hodgson went to Arkansas State, Charlie Henry to Georgia Southern, and Antoine Pettway to Kennesaw State.
Since then, Nate Oats has filled two of those three vacancies. The first hire was Austin Claunch who is only 33 years old but led Nicholls to back-to-back Southland regular season titles in 2021 and 2022 and was named the conference’s coach of the year as well in ’21. They also added Ryan Pannone, previously with the New Orleans Pelicans.
As of right now, Nate Oats is still taking his time on the third hire. He knows how important it is to have good assistants on your staff and there is still plenty of time until the season starts. I think the first two hires were absolute home runs, so the Tide are sitting pretty well as is.
Nate Oats said Alabama is not in a rush to hire a third assistant. “Still sorting through things”
— Nick Kelly (@_NickKelly) May 30, 2023
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