Any Nate Oats debates are cooked after Alabama advances to the Elite Eight yet again

We knew that Nate Oats could coach coming over from Buffalo, but we honestly had no idea he would be this good leading the Alabama Crimson Tide. Oats' 2024-25 team is on its way to the Elite Eight after beating the ever-living snot out of BYU in the Sweet Sixteen, 113-88. Though they will not be favored vs. top-seeded Duke, No. 2 seed Alabama is on the verge of making it back to the Final Four for the second straight year.

Throughout much of my lifetime, Alabama had a good, but never great basketball program. This historically has been a football school, one that has won national titles under the likes of Paul "Bear" Bryant, Gene Stallings and most recently Nick Saban. Not to say Oats is about to join their company, but what he has done in only a few short years at Alabama is nothing to sneeze at either.

Since Oats took over the program in 2019, he has guided Alabama to four Sweet Sixteens, two Elite Eights, and one Final Four (for now ...), as well as winning two SEC regular-season titles and two conference tournaments. We are in the midst of the golden age of Alabama basketball. It is only fitting that it very briefly overlapped with the final years of the Saban era on the gridiron.

FOX Sports Radio Aaron Torres painted a picture picture as to what all is going on at Alabama of late.

At this time, we need to stop complaining about what Oats is and is not and start enjoying all this.

Nate Oats has Alabama basketball at the peak of its powers

These are the type of hires you hope for. When Greg Byrne hired Oats, he was a strong, up-and-coming candidate who had had success leading the Buffalo Bulls over in the MAC. It was a slightly controversial hire at the time because he was seen as a small-time outsider. Well, it has worked out so far and then some for Oats and the entire Alabama program. I wonder we'll be saying the same about Kalen DeBoer at some point soon ...

What you have to remember is Byrne did not hire Saban. Mal Moore did. Byrne had been at SEC rival Mississippi State at the time Saban was hired at Alabama. He then went to Arizona for several years, only to take over in Tuscaloosa in 2017. He may be judged by the DeBoer hire, but his hiring of Oats has already done him a world of good. Alabama is three games away from winning a national title.

The thing that I appreciate about this the most is that the rabid fanbase was always there, or was at least sleeping in the shadows. Alabama has a well-resourced athletic program and has really upped its ante in the academics department in recent years. Oats may never carry the cachet of what his colleagues do on the football field, but the rest of the college basketball world has taken notice.

If we want the entire sports world to take notice, beat Duke in the Elite Eight and stop Cooper Flagg.