Nate Oats explains why he thinks it’s important the SEC Tournament is played this year
By Adam Spencer
Published:
As the country continues to deal with a pandemic, much is up in the air when it comes to the conference tournaments in college basketball.
One survey that came out on Thursday revealed that 1 in 4 NCAA men’s basketball coaches would be in favor of canceling conference tournaments this year.
However, don’t count Alabama coach Nate Oats among those in favor of canceling conference tourneys. During an appearance on “The Paul Finebaum Show” on Thursday, Oats explained what makes conference tournaments so important:
"They're both Championships, your kids will remember both for the rest of their lives."
A survey out today suggested 1 in 4 NCAA Men's hoops coaches would prefer cancelling conference tourneys this year. @nate_oats doesn't agree: pic.twitter.com/O7RY9xOQwU
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) January 21, 2021
“The last conference tournament I played in was in the MAC (when he was the head coach at Buffalo),” he said. “We won 3 of the 4 when I was up there. To me, those are some of the most fun things you can get to. I think it’s experiences for your players. To win the NCAA Tournament would be unbelievable, but the odds of that happening are very, very, very small. The odds of winning the SEC Tournament are much larger than the NCAA Tournament. They’re both championships. Your kids are going to remember both for the rest of their lives. I would hate to take away a chance for our 5 seniors to win a championship.”
Will the Tide get a chance to compete for an SEC Tournament title? The 2020 tournament was canceled after only a couple of games. We’ll see if things are different this time around.
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.
