When Nate Oats was introduced as Alabama’s 21st men’s basketball coach on March 28, he said the Crimson Tide was going to move up and down the court with a much quicker pace and has maintained that stance leading up to Tuesday’s season opener against Penn.

But getting Alabama’s players used to that uptempo approach took some time.

They were “gassed” following the first on-court workout with Oats in the days after the hire, and things weren’t going to get any easier in the weight room with new strength and conditioning coach Mike Snowden, who worked with the team four hours a week this offseason.

“I made that a point of emphasis that we’re going to move with a pace, and then when they got into that first workout, they understood why we do it that way,” Snowden told BamaOnLine in an exclusive interview. “We practice hard and practice at a very level high level so that the games are a little bit easier than the practice. They’ve adjusted fine to that.”

From April until now, Snowden has worked with the Alabama players to get them ready for a full season of playing in Oats’ fast-paced system. And just like the team’s journey over the course of the summer, Snowden’s path to Tuscaloosa, Ala., has been one filled with hard work.

A native of Frederick, Md., Snowden did not want to go to college immediately after high school. “Actually, I didn’t want to go to school at all,” he said. So, he chose to join the military.

The seven years he spent in the Navy were “the greatest decision that I made, as far as the relationships built there.” He will marry his fiancé, Colleen, after the 2019-20 season, and his groomsmen are going to be guys he met during his time in the service from 2005-12.

One relationship that shaped his future occurred during Snowden’s time on the USS George Washington. The fitness director on the aircraft career also trained a rugby team in Japan, and that’s how Snowden first learned strength and conditioning could be a profession.

“When I was in high school, it was like the football coach let you in the weight room and then locked the door when you got out,” Snowden said. “And I was like, ‘Well, I’m not going to coach football, so whatever.’” Once I found out about that, I was dead set on doing that.”

Alabama strength and conditioning coach Mike Snowden

After four years, Snowden considered getting out of the Navy, but he was offered an opportunity to go to Quantico, Va., to work for the presidential helicopter squadron -- also known as the Marine Helicopter Squadron One or HMX-1. “Well, I can’t turn that down,” he said.

Snowden held that position for three years (2009-12) and was awarded the Presidential Service Badge for his service to President Barack Obama, who he later met in the Oval Office.

“Being able to shake hands with the President of the United States was surreal,” Snowden said. “It was awesome and obviously something you never forget. I got a picture, and I think the picture’s in one of our recruiting slides, so it’s huge with parents and all of that. You don’t realize how cool it is at the time, but looking back on it, it was a great opportunity.

“My time in the Navy really catapulted me into what I’m doing now.”

When he wasn’t working for HMX-1, Snowden was either going to classes at night at George Mason or researching strength and conditioning and trying to map out his plan of how to get into the field. He actually watched plenty of YouTube videos on Alabama and Scott Cochran due to the success and notoriety of the Crimson Tide’s strength and conditioning program.

After completing his undergrad in kinesiology at George Mason, Snowden moved on to VCU where he first worked in college basketball year-round in his pursuit of a graduate degree. The year he served as a graduate assistant at VCU was also Oats’ first season at Buffalo.

“We played them that year, and I remember they came in that day and I was like, ‘I kind of like Buffalo,’” Snowden said. “At this point, I graduate grad school and I go back to George Mason full-time, and I still recall going to the Buffalo Athletics website and just looking around to see what they had going on.”

Snowden eventually saw a job posting online for a Buffalo strength and conditioning job with ties to men’s basketball. He had kept in touch with assistant coach Bryan Hodgson, who also joined Oats at Alabama, and reached out to him, who reached out to Oats. He got the job.

“It’s kind of crazy how that works,” Snowden said.

Alabama strength and conditioning coach Mike Snowden

In two years, with Snowden’s leadership in the weight room, the Bulls made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances and won a pair of Mid-American Conference tournament titles.

He’s now the strength coach at Alabama -- a move that was important for Oats to make.

“He’s part of our culture,” Oats said. “I thought he was really good in the weight room. His first year with us at Buffalo, he put 10 pounds of muscle on Nick Perkins during the year, so I think he can put weight on guys but do it in a way where he’s not training bodybuilders or weight-lifters. He’s training basketball players to be more agile. So, that side of it was great.

“But even the bigger side of it is just his overall addition to what we’re trying to build culturally. He monitors a lot of the little stuff -- do the guys hit the time? Do they hit the line in practice? He handles all that type of stuff. Punishment deals if they skip class.

“We’re trying to build a culture here where guys -- just certain things that are unacceptable, and he helps handle a lot of that. So, he’s big. I’m glad he’s here with us. We did a lot with him at Buffalo, and I think he’s adding to our culture here at Alabama quite a bit.”

Snowden had a pretty impressive resume before coming to Tuscaloosa, including a stint as an intern with Maryland’s football team. But seven years in the Navy and Marine Corps prepared him well for this career, as there are several parallels between strength and conditioning and the military that allow Snowden to relate and motivate the student-athletes he trains.

“There’s a big mythical component to being in the military and some of the stuff that you do when you’re in there, and I think the word mental toughness gets thrown around so much,” Snowden said. “But the guys know I’ve done a handful of different things that are tough and you have to kind of fight through, if that makes sense.

“So, when we ask them to do those things, I think they get a little bit more -- I don’t want to say get a little bit more respect when I ask them to do those things, but I think it definitely plays a role in their response at times.”

And Snowden has asked Alabama’s players to do a lot, but they enjoy that.

Alabama strength and conditioning coach Mike Snowden

“It’s been fun,” junior wing Herbert Jones said. “He’s very strict, but it’s been really fun. He’s kind of flexible with what guys need to work on. Everybody doesn’t do the same things. He works on your strengths and your weakness.”

Whether it’s the retreat to Sylacauga, Ala., this summer that resembled a boot camp or trips to Deontay Wilder’s gym and Bryant-Denny Stadium for workouts, Snowden likes to mix things up. But he has also had a consistent message throughout the offseason -- “train like champions.”

“The guys that fight in that gym down there in Northport win a lot of fights and are champions,” Snowden said. “We went over to Bryant-Denny, the guys that play over in that stadium happen to win a lot of games and are crowned champions a lot, too.

“We want to win a bunch of games, we expect to win a bunch of games and we want to win some championships, so just getting our mind right to train that way was huge for us.”

Alabama will tip off the Oats era tomorrow with a game against the Penn Quakers, and it has been Snowden’s job to get the players ready to run in the new head coach’s uptempo offense. The work seems to be paying off as the Crimson Tide scored 90 points in a closed scrimmage with Jacksonville State and 93 points in a charity exhibition with Georgia Tech.

“It’s a way different style when we work out with him,” junior forward Alex Reese said. “Everything’s still fast-paced, you’re running around in the weight room, doing all this crazy stuff. It’s been good for us.”

The players’ first exposure to Snowden and Oats was an eye-opening experience for all parties involved, but they’ve since adjusted and made “a lot of progress in a lot of different areas.”

Snowden can’t wait to see that work translate to the court this season.

“I’m very excited,” Snowden said. “These guys have put in a ton of work, so I’m excited to watch them really to see it pay off, whether that’s at the beginning of the year with some big wins or whether it’s down the line and we’re dancing somewhere.

“I think these guys have done a good job of pounding the stone every day they come in here. At some point, we always talk about, that stone has to crack, so it’s definitely coming, and I’m excited to see it.”

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