Michigan head coach John Beilein is leaving the Wolverines men’s basketball program to take the head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers. And his departure raised the question of would Alabama coach Nate Oats, a former high school coach in Michigan, be interested in the opening?

Oats first told Jon Scott of SPEC News Buffalo that he loves being the coach of the Crimson Tide.

“I love it in Alabama,” Oats told Scott via a text. “Completely focused on my job there and getting my family moved down there. I hope my former assistant at Romulus, Saddi Washington, who’s been with Beilein the longest at Michigan gets a shot at the job. Roll Tide.”

Oats has ties to the state of Michigan as he completed 11 seasons as head coach at Romulus High School, winning the school’s first state title in 27 years in 2012-13 and finished the season 27-1 prior to coaching at the University of Buffalo. He was named the 2013 Detroit News State Coach of the Year, the Detroit Free Press State Coach of the Year, and BCAM State Coach of the Year.

Oats came to Alabama after spending the last four seasons at Buffalo. While there, he led the Bulls to a 96-43 (.691) record, three MAC Tournament Championships and three NCAA Tournament appearances, including reaching the round of 32 in each of the last two seasons. As a result, he was named the league’s Coach of The Year and National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) District 14 Coach of the Year in back-to-back seasons (2018 and 2019).

Alabama head basketball coach Nate Oats

He was announced as the Tide’s 27th men’s basketball coach March 27 and was introduced the following day during a press conference in Tuscaloosa. He hit the ground running by landing a pair of commitments and re-recruiting the players on Alabama’s roster or that had already signed.

“It's actually pretty good,” Oats said of his roster. “Coach (Avery) Johnson did some things pretty well here. I think he recruited a pretty good roster. John Petty, Kira Lewis, Tevin Mack, Herb Jones, there's four perimeter guys right there that can all really play and fit the way we like to play. We had to add more perimeter depth. We've got some bigs that are solid and can really contribute. I think Galin Smith plays really hard, and Alex Reese is a skilled big. We've got pieces.

“We had to add a little depth. We did that in Beetle Bolden. And then they had a top 20 recruiting class, three Top100 kids that Antoine Pettway had done a really good job recruiting them all, and we were able to keep them even with the coaching change. And then we added another Top100 kid, so we've got four Top100 kids coming in as freshmen that will all have a chance to contribute and some pretty good returners. Avery resigned ... but they actually left us a fairly decent roster to coach next year, and I'm excited to coach these guys.”

Oats’ contract at Alabama is for five years and he will earn $2.462 million per year as head coach of the Crimson Tide men’s basketball program. According to the memorandum of understanding signed March 27 by Oats and March 28 by Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne and university president Stuart Bell, Oats will earn a base salary of $275,000, a talent fee of $2.175 million a year and has an expense account of $12,000 a year for the grand total of $2.462 million.

Contact Charlie Potter by 247Sports' personal messaging or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).

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