Ad Disclosure
Nate Oats discusses honoring Cameron Luke Ratliff ahead of Alabama basketball season
Published:
Alabama kicks off is basketball season Tuesday night against Louisiana Tech and there will be a noticeable absence in the stands.
Cameron Luke Ratliff, regarded by all as one of the Crimson Tide biggest basketball supporters, passed away on April 2 at the age of 23 due to complications with COVID-19.
On Tuesday night, Ratliff will be honored for his support of Alabama basketball. On Monday, Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats talked about Ratliff.
“It’s a sad deal to be honest,” Oats said. “Ever since I got here, you walk in, shoot, sometimes you walk in for shoot-around 4 hours before the game and he’s already in the stands setting stuff up, fired up, ready to go. The more I got to know him, I’d go over and talk to him for a few minutes and let him what the game plan was.
“I think the school ‘s done a great job, the administration’s been great with honoring him. His parent are in town today. They’ll be there for the game (Tuesday). It’ll be special to honor him but I’m going to really miss him.”
Oats also had a special message for Alabama students, who he hopes will make it a priority to remember one of their own.
“It would be great if the students honored him a meaningful way, to show up early before the game,” Oats said. “If we could pack that student section full 30 minutes before the game and really give him that respect that he deserves. Hopefully we can get a win for him and kind of keep the spirt of what he was about around this program moving forward.”
You can see all of Oats’ comments about Ratliff below:
Nate Oats on Cameron Luke Ratliff
Full Press Conferencehttps://t.co/ahnIlcR6vX pic.twitter.com/gyoMclYVaN
— BamaOnLine (@BOL_On3) November 8, 2021
"Chris Wallace covers college football for Saturday Down South. He has covered college athletics for multiple newspapers and also worked previously for Rivals.com and GolfChannel.com."
