Ohio State Basketball: 9 candidates to replace Chris Holtmann as Head Coach

Nate Oats

Ohio State’s hiring process must include every potential asset that could make this basketball program better. They’ll be looking closely at some of these power conference programs that have really succeeded in recent years and just exactly how this happened. Upon examination of a certain program down in Alabama, they’ll see that a certain Midwesterner could achieve similar success in the Big Ten.

Oats was born in Wisconsin and began his coaching career in his home state. He was a longtime high school coach in Detroit before getting his D1 start with Buffalo on Bobby Hurley’s first staff. As a collegiate head coach, he took those Bulls to three NCAA Tournaments in four years, including a pair of wins in the NCAA Tournament. He was brought to Alabama in 2019 and has taken the Crimson Tide to a pair of SEC titles and a pair of Sweet Sixteen runs.

He immediately checks a lot of boxes, having won big and turned around programs at both Buffalo and Alabama over the last decade. He spent a long time in Wisconsin and Michigan and while he has zero experience with the Big Ten would be very familiar with Big Ten battlegrounds. Oats might not be interested in leaving the Crimson Tide at this point, though Ohio State could certainly lure him away with a sweet deal.