Nate Oats Reveals New Nickname for Mouhamed Dioubate

The Alabama forward's blue-collar mentality and numerous Hard Hat awards have given him another alias.

Nov 15, 2024; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Alabama Crimson Tide forward Mouhamed Dioubate (10) reacts to a call during the first half against the Purdue Boilermakers at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images / Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

TUSCALOOSA, Ala.— Former math teacher and current Alabama men's basketball head coach Nate Oats is all about the analytics side of the game.

He created a blue-collar scoring system a while back and it's used in every practice and game. Players are given a certain amount of non-scoreboard points for deflections, steals, blocks, rebounds, and loose balls. Offensive rebounds, diving on the floor and drawing fouls are also methods of gaining blue-collar points, and whichever player tallies the most at the end of the game or practice is rewarded with a construction worker hard hat.

No one on Alabama has won the Hard Hat more times this season than forward Mouhamed Dioubate, who has worn it seven times. According to Oats, the Crimson Tide's top bench frontcourt member is the only player in Division I who has 110 rebounds in less than 310 minutes. Dioubate's efforts on the glass and his overall hustle have earned him a new nickname.

"Occasionally we kind of joke with him, and because he's not at all the Hollywood type, he's a New York City kid, so we call him 'Broadway Mo' when we're trying to jab at him a little bit," Oats said during Friday's press conference. "We call him soft to get him going a little bit. We tell him 'We're getting the Broadway Mo today, not the south side of Jamaica, Queens Mo. We've got to go back to the tough side of New York City.'

"He exemplifies what we're trying to build this program [around]. "We call blue-collar basketball and he's as blue-collar as it gets. He's all about getting stops. He's not afraid to mix it up."

Dioubate's blue-collar mentality was especially on display in the Crimson Tide's last game when Alabama took down No. 14 Mississippi State 88-84 on the road.

"He got about every offensive rebound in the second half for us. You know, against Mississippi State, he hits the free throw once, he makes big blocked shots he has the play at the end of the game where he knocks it off of [Mississippi State guard Josh] Hubbard's leg to cause the turnover. It essentially seals the game for us."

Nevertheless, Oats expects this from Dioubate as he's willing to do whatever the coaches ask of him and performs the task to their standard.

"We switch him onto point guards when we need to," Oats said. "We play him on fours and fives, literally whatever it takes to win the games. And has never complained about minutes. We just explain to him what he's got to do to get more minutes and he's just, like, 'alright, got it, coach.' He nods his head and proceeds to do what you tell him to do so, absolute joy to coach.

"Really glad we've got him because the other thing is he teaches the other guys what we want...he's not the most skilled kid on the team. We're working on getting that better. I will say there are certain skills he's pretty good at. I mean, you hit him in the pocket, and he makes pocket reads as good as anybody on the team. You get him going downhill, in certain situations he finishes at the rim better than anybody on the team."

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