Nate Oats Explains his Costly Technical in Loss to Iona

The Alabama head coach was called for a technical foul that led to a second-half run for Iona in the loss.

Alabama Athletics

With a little over 12 minutes left in Thursday's game, Alabama held a 46-37 lead over Iona. Alabama head coach Nate Oats got irritated with a call on a ball out of bounds and expressed his frustration by throwing a water bottle.

According to Oats, he believed he saw the play clearly and asked the official farther from the play to help out the official who was on top of it. Neither agreed with him, and he threw the bottle that resulted in him getting called for the technical foul. It was a major part of a 10-1 run for the Gaels.

"My tech was in the middle of that, that's on me," Oats said. "Wasn't timely on my part."

Immediately after the technical, Walter Clayton Jr. made the two free throws for Iona. The Gaels scored on their next three possessions to tie the game at 47.

From that point on, the Crimson Tide could never build a lead greater than six points, and a few minutes later Iona took its first lead at 59-57 since the first half with 5:34 to go. 

Alabama tied it a few times after that, but was never able to retake the lead, and the technical foul on Oats proved to completely shift the momentum and direction of the game. 

The free throw line was a big difference in the game overall. Iona shot 16-21, and Alabama shot 13-25, 52%. In Alabama's last two losses (Thursday against Iona and the Sweet 16 loss to UCLA), the Crimson Tide shot a combined 24-50 from the charity stripe. 

The Crimson Tide was previously undefeated in games in which Oats received a technical foul, but the head coach took full blame for his "stupid" decision.

"It was not a smart T," he said. "Coaches make mistakes too. I've got to own that one. We could've used those two points they got when they hit those free throws late in the game, and that's on me."