LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – It’s an awkward transition. One minute, Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats is being asked about the gun policies on his campus, with a former player having been indicted by a grand jury on capital murder charges in the January shooting death of a 23-year old woman near campus, and his current best player (not facing charges) having allegedly delivered the gun.
The next minute, Oats is discussing NCAA Sweet 16 opponent San Diego State’s tendency to switch everything on ball screens.
It's journalistic whiplash.
At the news conference podium in the KFC Yum! Center on Thursday, Nate Oats, coach of the NCAA Tournament’s No. 1 overall seed seemed apprehensive about the questions he knew were coming, because they’ve been coming for a while. But with every successive step in the NCAA Tournament, the spotlight grows brighter.
Oats already has demonstrated that his comfort level lies more in talking about shooting of the three-point variety. Whose doesn’t? Still, his early handling of this whole tragic situation has been a cringeworthy demonstration in warped perspective. It isn’t confined to Alabama, or any particular sport or place, but it’s an uncomfortable reminder that the games must go on.
Oats’ explanation that Brandon Miller, accused of supplying a gun used in the crime, was in the “wrong place at the wrong time,” has been widely panned, criticized and condemned. Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who didn’t make an overt reference to Oats, Miller or the whole situation a few days ago when he said of one of his own suspended freshman players, “there’s no such thing as the wrong place at the wrong time,” may or may not have been distancing himself or his program from the basketball issues. He claimed Thursday that the comment was a coincidence and quipped that he never pays attention to basketball press conferences.
Saban pays attention to everything. What he says, he means to say. Even if he did make a trip to the basketball facilities to talk to the team before it left for Louisville.
Alabama star Brandon Miller takes place in a practice session before the NCAA Regional at the KFC Yum! Center.
Oats has been paying attention, too. Sort of. It’s still a strange juxtaposition that the following statements came back-to-back in the same answer to a question about whether the team has been able to find joy in the tournament despite the circumstances:
“We’re having a blast. We’re winning games. We know who we are. We’ve got a great group of guys that lean on each other, that have come close.
“We’ve never lost sight of the fact that we have a heartbreaking situation surrounding the program. The fact that we have such a good group of guys enables them to keep that, as they should, be a serious matter, and it has been, but, you know, you play basketball from the time you were young to get to these moments, and we’re going to enjoy these moments. They’ve earned the right to enjoy the moment they’re in, and I think our guys are having a lot of fun .”
Oats was asked Thursday if the university has any kind of instruction for athletes on how to treat women or campus gun policies.
“We bring in speakers of all different types throughout the year,” he said. “You know, we've had -- that's been addressed, certainly, and we've got an unbelievable administration with us, and they take the opportunities when it's appropriate to reemphasize things that have been previously talked about and need to be emphasized, and that's been done. I think our administration and our coaching staff has done a great job using the resources we have at Alabama to help -- to really help these young men grow into better adults and better citizens moving forward.”
But, the question persisted, what then did these speakers say about guns and school policy?
“We emphasize you have to follow university policy. There’s university policy. As a student-athlete, you should be well above reproach on all university policies regarding any of that type of stuff.”
What can you say? He got through the lines, but didn’t really nail them.
Here's the painful part about all this. A young mother, Jamea Jonea Harris, is dead. Her child has lost his mother. And this big production – a special season for a basketball team, the parade of March Madness and big-time college sports – doesn’t even seem to be able or willing to at least slow down while the procession passes, let alone remove its hat.
We hear about the players leaning on each other. Who is the family leaning on?
So what am I saying? That Alabama shouldn’t be allowed to play, that I hope those players (most of whom had nothing to do with any of this) lose? No. I’m not saying that.
Alabama's Brandon Miller, Mark Sears and Jahvon Quinerly speak with reporters at an NCAA regional news conference in the KFC Yum! Center on March 23, 2023.
I am saying that it would have been easier for people to cheer for and appreciate this team, to participate in its joy, if its leadership had exercised a measure of discipline or decency in the immediate aftermath.
This is not Alabama against the world. It’s the world putting aside the memory of a slain woman to be entertained by a game. Nothing can undo what was done. Nobody’s asking for that. But don’t ask people to stand up and cheer that nothing was done.
Each step closer to the Final Four that Alabama takes, the pain of that family is intensified. That’s a shadow that even One Shining Moment won’t chase.
After leaving the podium Thursday, Oats walked with his team out to the court, smiling as his team began practice, a song by Alabama, the country band, blaring through the speakers.
We know this is how things work. We don't have to like it.
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