Long after a smile replaced his scowl, Nate Oats chuckled thinking through his resumé. Best he could remember, Alabama’s basketball coach had never been ejected from a game he’d coached.
That streak ended Wednesday and he got his money’s worth.
Whistled for a pair of technical fouls in separate incidents within a minute of each other, Oats’ outburst primed Coleman Coliseum for the final flurry. Alabama’s 80-75 win over Mississippi State couldn’t be directly tied to the wild scene that followed the ejection but it certainly didn’t hurt.
More Alabama hoops: Alabama goes off after Nate Oats ejected, wins 3rd straight in wild scene
“It got us going a little bit, when your head coach has got your back,” said Alabama’s Jahvon Quinerly who scored a game-high 21 points. “He’s the one dealing with the refs, making sure things go our way. It just gave us a little energy boost. We felt like we had to win the game for him.”
Oats took responsibility for his actions after the game.
“I thought there was a foul,” Oats said. “They didn’t call it. I had been on them. There were a few calls I disagreed with. It happens. I shouldn’t have gone after them as hard as I did when I already had one T. I have to be smarter. I’m not going to repeat everything that was said between me and the ref but I have to do a better job.”
Oats clearly wanted a foul called on a 3-point shot taken by Alabama’s Keon Ellis with 9:20 left. The whistle came two seconds later and Iverson Molinar made the two technical foul shots to give Mississippi State a 58-55 lead.
The second technical came with 8:34 left after Charles Bediako made a layup and was fouled. Oats got into it with the referees before the foul shot and that was it.
After a quick delegation of powers to his assistants coaches, a visibly enraged Oats sulked across the floor toward Alabama’s locker room. He looked into the media seating and yelled something in the direction of SEC coordinator of basketball officials Mike Eades.
“Walking out, I guess it’s better to be tossed at home with the crowd cheering for you than,” Oats said. “If you got tossed on the road, it might be a little different reception. I will try not to get tossed anymore.”
Oats said he watched the final 8:34 of the game in the training room with Jeff Purinton, Alabama’s executive deputy athletic director.
“I’m cheering like a fan at that point,” Oats said. “I didn’t have a whole lot to do with what was going on, decisions made or what plays they were running. I thought the staff did pretty well.”
Alabama went on an 18-2 run after Mississippi State scored on the two possessions after the ejection. A three-point play from freshman JD Davison gave Alabama the lead for good with 5:01 left.
Assistant Charlie Henry appeared to have the reigns after Oats was tossed and he got good reviews from everyone involved.
Oats also credited the Coleman Coliseum crowd -- far from a sellout with 9,192 of the nearly 15,000 tickets sold -- for taking the energy to another level. He said he could hear the noise from the training room under the seating bowl.
“I mean, the crowd was fired up,” Oats said. “It was good to know we got the crowd excited. It’s not the best feeling to leave the team out there without you when you’re the head coach. I was a little irritated. It wasn’t something I thought out or planned before because I didn’t plan on getting tossed.”
Oats said he thanked the team for having his back after getting the boot.
It didn’t sound like there were any hard feelings in the locker room.
“He fights for us,” Bediako said. “We fight for him.”
Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.
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