The offseason started early for head coach Nate Oats and the Alabama men’s basketball team, as the coronavirus pandemic ended the 2019-20 college basketball season. But due to NCAA restrictions, Oats and his staff can’t see prospects in person until at least April 15.

Speaking to reporters on a Tuesday teleconference, Oats shared how the health crisis has affected recruiting and what he and his coaching staff will be looking to add to their roster.

“Recruiting is obviously one of those things that’s changed,” Oats said. “If everything was status quo and normal, I’d be flying all over the place trying to get my face in front of players right now, whether they be transfers, JUCOs, high schoolers, anywhere. What ideally this roster looks like is multiple skilled players all over the floor. That’s kind of how we’ve won in the past.

“… At this level, we need to get better players than what we had at Buffalo here at Alabama, but we’d like to get more guards and big guards that can play. We want more guys that can pass, dribble and shoot all over the floor. We want more bigs that can shoot -- pass, dribble and shoot, to be honest with you. So, we’re looking at every possible angle there is.

“We’re talking to high school kids that we’ve been tracking for a while. We’re talking to JUCO guys that we’ve been tracking for a while. We’re talking to transfers that have just become available here in the last week or two. We’re looking at all of it.”

The Crimson (16-15, 8-10 SEC) lost one senior in guard James Bolden and saw another player, freshman center Raymond Hawkins, enter the NCAA transfer portal. After signing 4-star forward Keon Ambrose-Hylton in November, the team has one open scholarship to give.

However, Oats on Tuesday revealed guards Kira Lewis and John Petty will enter their names into the NBA draft without hiring agents. The duo will have until the June 15 deadline, barring a change from the league, to withdraw their names from the draft, but Oats said he is preparing as if both starters will leave Alabama and is actively recruiting their replacements.

Two of the Crimson Tide’s top targets are 4-star combo guard Joshua Primo from Toronto and junior college transfer Keon Ellis, another combo guard. Oats and his staff are also actively reaching out to players entering the NCAA transfer portal, which is always abuzz.

Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats

“We don’t know how this going to end up looking,” Oats said. “Some of these guys are committing now without taking visits. I think that’s just going to become a reality because there’s going to be guys that want to take the spot, they know where they want to go and they’re going to take it before somebody else takes it and they’re going to have to commit without a visit.

“I don’t know that everybody we’re recruiting is going to do that. Some of them may. But I think they’ve gotten the comfort level with us, and then once they are able to visit, we’ll just bring them on a visit after. But we’re looking to hopefully have at least committed this week. That’s our hope.”

Should Lewis and Petty leave, Alabama will return six scholarship players that received regular minutes this past season. The three players that did not play -- James Rojas, Juwan Gary and Jahvon Quinerly -- will also be able to play during the upcoming 2020-21 season. But there could also be more movement, in terms of transfers, though none of the returning players have expressed an interest in doing that at this point in time, Oats said Tuesday.

“I think it’s going to look significantly different,” Oats said of his UA roster. “... We’re going to have some guys that now the question is who’s leaving? Who’s coming? We obviously saw Raymond went in the portal. Look, I love Ray. I think he’s a great kid. Maybe it didn’t work out here. I do think he’s got a chance to be a really good player, and we’re going to do whatever we can to help him get in a spot that he feels more comfortable, that he’ll be able to play in.

“And being that I was a high school coach for 11 years and I had to help kids that maybe didn’t make a great choice initially where they went, and I had plenty of kids transfer. … I help kids go through this process. I told our guys, ‘If any of you aren’t comfortable, some of you weren’t recruited to play this type of style, we will 100 percent help you get to a better spot, if that’s what you want.’ At this point, none of them made that decision, and we haven’t.

“Now, as we start to get some commits, we’ll have those conversations and they may be a little bit harder conversations as they see different guys committing to us. They may realize that maybe their playing time is going to go down. We’ll have those conversations coming up, but I don’t know who they’ll be. Some of that will be determined by our own players, to be honest with you, and how much they want to compete with some guys that we’re bringing in for guys.

“... Hopefully, we get somebody to commit here within the week. And then moving forward from there, as more guys commit, there’s going to have to be some conversations with some guys on the roster, and those will be coming down the road as different stuff happens. Ideally, those will be face-to-face conversations, but we’re put in a little bit different spot and we’re going to have to have some of those conversations via phone, I think.”

Contact Charlie Potter by personal message or on Twitter (@Charlie_Potter).