Nate Oats explains how basketball team plans to use 5-star CB Ga’Quincy McKinstry this year
By Adam Spencer
Published:
5-star CB Ga’Quincy McKinstry is the No. 1 cornerback in the 2021 recruiting class and one of the prized signings in Alabama’s class.
But, he’s also a dual-sport athlete, playing both football and basketball. Basketball coach Nate Oats was also a part of the recruiting process.
After Saturday’s home win over Mississippi State, Oats said he doesn’t expect McKinstry to make an impact with the basketball team this season (via 247Sports):
“He came to school a semester early like a lot of football guys do, and we recruited him as a basketball-football player,” Oats said. “He’s been showing up to practice when his schedule permits. Trying to get him accustomed to what we’re doing. It’s gonna take a long time. Obviously, you think about our new players now, they were here in June. Think about all the time that he’s missed. It’s gonna be hard for him to do anything realistically with the team game-wise this year, but we’re gonna let him practice.
“Now obviously, when they start their conditioning program in football, that takes precedent. So, we’ll see what our time looks like when that starts. But for now, any time he can get over here and practice with us — he practiced with us yesterday, we ran him on the scout team.
“He’s a great kid. I like having him around. I shot a game of pool with him today after shootaround. He likes to talk. I like the kid a lot. I love having him around. We’ll just have to see how the schedules work out, how much we can get him. Seems like a pretty intelligent kid to where he can pick stuff up pretty quick, too. He’s obviously a great athlete, kind of brings that blue-collar toughness, gritty. He could probably give us some of that. But we’ll have to see how he picks up the system and all of that here.”
As Oats said, the football offseason training program starts soon. Then, spring football will dominate McKinstry’s schedule.
Will we see him on the court next season? We’ll find out soon enough.
Adam is a daily fantasy sports (DFS) and sports betting expert. A 2012 graduate of the University of Missouri, Adam now covers all 16 SEC football teams. He is the director of DFS, evergreen and newsletter content across all Saturday Football brands.
