Bama Central

Nate Oats Watches His Former Players Win $1 Million Title in The Basketball Tournament

Crimson Tide assistant coach Bryan Hodgson served as GM, and Alabama's director of scouting and analytics Adam Bauman was the winning head coach.

Christopher Walsh

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Nate Oats is about to head to Europe to lead the Alabama men's basketball team on a summer trip that will include three high-profile games, but on Tuesday night the Crimson Tide head coach had to make a little detour to Dayton, Ohio. 

Blue Collar U, a team made up mostly of his former players from Buffalo, and also had Crimson Tide assistant coach Bryan Hodgson as general manager and Alabama's director of scouting and analytics Adam Bauman as head coach, played in the championship game of the The Basketball Tournament, also known as TBT.

The annual 64-team summer tournament is open to anyone, and has a $1 million winner-takes-all championship. 

“Blue Collar U” beat “Americana For Autism,” 89-67.

CJ Massinburg, Wes Clark and Nick Perkins were all named All-Tournament, with Massingburg the tournament MVP. The three players combined to score 54 points in the championship, with Perkins scoring 19, Massingburg 18 and Clark netted 17. 

Massingburg played at Buffalo from 2015–2019. His senior year he averaged 18.5 points per game and was named the MAC Player of the Year. Perkins and Clark also played at Buffalo.  

On the TBT website, Blue Collar U said it plans to donate a portion of their winnings to Coaching Love Inc., a non-profit started by Hodgson to help at-risk youth, particularly those in the foster care system, through sports. Hogdson was raised by a foster family in New York. 

Players received immediate deposits ranging from $30,000 to $100,000 after the title game. 

The tournament has been played since 2014, and aired on ESPN networks. Some of the teams featured active professional players. Blue Collar U reached the semifinals in 2021. 

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Christopher Walsh
CHRISTOPHER WALSH

Christopher Walsh is the founder and publisher of BamaCentral, which first published in 2018. He's covered the Crimson Tide since 2004, and is the author of 26 books including Decade of Dominance, 100 Things Crimson Tide Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die, Nick Saban vs. College Football, and Bama Dynasty: The Crimson Tide's Road to College Football Immortality. He's an eight-time honoree of Football Writers Association of America awards and three-time winner of the Herby Kirby Memorial Award, the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s highest writing honor for story of the year. In 2022, he was named one of the 50 Legends of the ASWA. Previous beats include the Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, along with Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks. Originally from Minnesota and a graduate of the University of New Hampshire, he currently resides in Tuscaloosa.

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