Alabama basketball got a big boost Saturday during its blowout win over Texas A&M. The difference in the game wasn’t only from the Crimson Tides 18 three-pointers in the 100-75 victory, but it also got a motivational talk leading up to the game from college football’s most accomplished coach.
Head basketball coach Nate Oats revealed to the media following the game that none other than Nick Saban spoke with the team ahead of the game.
“He is, to me, maybe the best team coach of any team sport in modern college sports history and he’s right here,” Oats said. “This was in the window. We kind of had a week off between games and I thought it’d be good for our guys to hear from a respected coach like him on what it took to win. He was great.”
According to guard Rylan Griffin, Saban talked to the team about the development of better habits as the team prepares to make another run at an SEC title.
“He just said like, ‘What do you want to do to get where you want to go?’ When he speaks you just take everything in because he’s a legend a living legend,” Griffin said. “So you just take everything he says and apply it to your own personal life. He talked about building better habits, being disciplined and stuff like that. The same stuff he’s always really talked about, but it’s just whenever it’s in front of your face, you take it in more and you take it a lot more seriously.”
Saban retired from coaching in January after 17 years at Alabama where he held an overall record of 206-29 while winning six of his seven total national championships in Tuscaloosa.
Oats has had the chance to learn from Saban since he took over the basketball program in 2019 and since Saban will be remaining at Alabama as an advisor, it’ll give him and new head football coach Kalen DeBoer more opportunities to seek his wisdom.
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