NEWARK, N.J. − The window was open for Nate Oats to whine about how hard it is to build a roster that can win an NCAA championship. So wide open, in fact, that as the Alabama basketball coach enumerated all the reasons Duke ended his team's season 85-65 Saturday night in a NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game, he also noted that "we're behind" with NCAA transfer portal activity. The portal opened a week ago, and here was the Crimson Tide, still bouncing basketballs on the 29th day of March.
Two seats to Oats' left sat a freshman, Labaron Philon, who choked back tears over the loss because the Crimson Tide fell short of a Final Four in what will likely be his only collegiate season. He's projected as a first-round NBA Draft pick, the next in a lengthy line of them who've come through Oats' program in the last six seasons.
Oats now heads back into roster-rebuild season − this time, he'll be wearing the hardhat − and the job won't be a small one. It never is anymore, with portal turnover decimating rosters nationwide. But Oats made it very clear that these extra-deep NCAA Tournament runs are a warranted expectation now. And he's fearless about the task of putting together another team, perhaps with an awful lot of new faces, that can do it again.
"It's tough to rebuild a roster every year, but when you win at the level we're winning and you develop guys for the NBA every year like we've done, I think we've got a lot of people who want to come to this program," Oats said. " ... We'll have a roster that competes for a national championship and an SEC championship next year, and the years moving forward."
He's losing senior starters Mark Sears, Grant Nelson, Cliff Omoruyi and Chris Youngblood. He'll no doubt lose a few to the transfer portal as well, so figure on half the roster, at a minimum, being vacated. What isn't going away is the recruiting attractions Oats spoke of, primarily the program's success and its now-proven track record as an NBA feeder. NIL money trumps all in the roster realm, but those two factors can loom large when a player's options are ...
