Nate Oats Emphasizes Former Assistant Bryan Hodgson's Impact on Alabama Basketball

The Crimson Tide head coach explained how the Arkansas State head coach utilizes a very similar play style with the Red Wolves.

Alabama Head Coach Nate Oats, assistant coach Bryan Hodgson and the bench erupt after an apparent foul was not called. Alabama defeated Auburn 83-64 in Coleman Coliseum Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020. [Staff Photo/Gary Cosby Jr.] Alabama Vs Auburn Men S Basketball / Gary Cosby Jr. via Imagn Content Services, LLC

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— No. 2 Alabama basketball's upcoming home matchup against Arkansas State has a bit more meaning than just a highly regarded SEC school going head-to-head with a member of the Sun Belt Conference.

That said, the Crimson Tide's status in the college basketball world wasn't anywhere near the top of the mountain when head coach Nate Oats arrived in 2019. He alongside assistants Bryan Hodgson, Antoine Pettway and Charlie Henry started from towards the bottom of the mountain and laid out a foundation to gradually create what we know Alabama basketball as today: a powerhouse.

Prior to last season, less than one month after Alabama was the No. 1 overall seed entering the 2023 NCAA Tournament and lost in the Sweet 16, other teams recognized the talent of the assistants and all three of them took other jobs. On Friday, Oats will be reuniting with Hodgson in a rematch from last season, as the Year 2 Arkansas State head coach has flipped the Red Wolves program 180 degrees as they're now predicted to win the Sun Belt.

"This next one is particularly good for me personally," Oats said. "Bryan Hodgson did a great job of turning that program around in one year. He spent eight years with me. This is the second year in a row they've come back here and played us at our place. I think they were just one of two programs with a first-year head coach last year who had 20 or more wins over Division I teams. He did an unbelievable job of turning that around. They had 20 losses when he inherited it."

Oats emphasized that Hodgson, along with Henry and Pettway, "helped build" Alabama's current success despite no longer being with the program.

"Our biggest things were what are the attitudes like and what is the effort like every day," Oats said. "You get full control over your effort, you get full control over your attitude, and when I think those two are where they need to be you can work on teaching system and everything from there. We fought hard to make sure that guys trusted us, believed in us, that we legitimately had their best interest at heart—you've got to build that relationship so you get the max effort out of them."

According to Oats it appears that Hodgson has used this philosophy with the Red Wolves since he arrived there. Following a rough 13-20 season by the Red Wolves in 2022-23, Arkansas State fired head coach Mike Balado and hired Hodgson. In his first year at Arkansas State, the Red Wolves finished with a much-improved 20-17 record and made the Sun Belt Conference Championship game, but were one win short of an NCAA Tournament berth last season.

"They're gonna play similar to us," Oats said. "They do a lot of stuff like we do—that's why I'm glad he's winning, the formula is working at other levels and other spots. But hopefully we guard it fairly well. You know the personnel is obviously different, they've got some pretty tough players at different spots. We've got another personnel, but schematic-wise, we should know what they're doing and I would assume they'll probably run with us until they play. They put up a lot of points, similar to us putting up a lot of points, most of their games."

"I think Bryan's done a great job. I don't necessarily look forward to playing these guys, but I look forward to seeing them and wish him and all the other three guys, you know, Charlie, Pettway and Antoine, all of them, I hope they all do well. But for this one game, we hope one of my former assistants takes the L (Oats said while chuckling)."

No. 2 Alabama will host Arkansas State on Friday, Nov. 8, at 7 p.m. CT on SECN+/ESPN+