Nate Oats Makes His First Visit Inside the Locker Room

Early Thursday afternoon, Alabama director of athletics Greg Byrne formally introduced Nate Oats as the 21st head coach in program history.

The former Buffalo head coach mentioned how he arrived in Tuscaloosa, meeting with the current members of the Crimson Tide basketball team and the culture he wants to instill in the program.

To close out the week, new Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats made his first visit with Wimp and Barry Sanderson on Inside the Locker Room.

In his visit with the two former college basketball coaches, the Crimson Tide's new head coach details the style of play he wants to see out of his teams, his impressions of the University of Alabama campus, visiting Kira Lewis's family following the introductory press conference and what he plans to do for assembling a coaching staff at Alabama.

Generally speaking, on defense, Oats sees his team playing an aggressive, man-to-man style of defense.

"We typically are straight man-to-man defense but we try to get into it and pressure the ball really hard." Oats said. "I want to get guys up on the ball, pressure the ball, play hard on the ball, but I don't want to be gambling and giving up layups. I don't want to be stupid with it, but we want to play hard."

When the Crimson Tide has the ball, he wants to see them play fast.

"Offensively, we play fast. We (Buffalo) were number one in the country this year in transition points per game. We were fifth in scoring, fourth last year in scoring. We get up and down. Our pace of play I think is third in the country if you look at KenPom. It's going to be a fast, hopefully exciting style of play that people embrace and want to come watch."

Catch Inside the Locker Room every weekday from 7-9 on Tide 102.9/100.9 and the Tide 102.9 app.