Everything Nate Oats said after Alabama’s Elite Eight win over Clemson

I’m going to be honest, the last time they picked us the fifth best team in the SEC we won the whole thing. So my plan was to win the whole thing. But didn’t happen. We lost the game against Tennessee at home, which I thought we had a chance to win that. If we would have won that, we would have won the SEC again.

But they weren’t far off because we finished tied for fifth – tied for second, tied for fifth. There was a four-way tie there. We ended up with the 3 seed.

But for a team picked fifth, and really – we haven’t been healthy for a while. Like the last time we were fully healthy we beat Texas A&M, who has a really good team. Shoot, they almost beat Houston when Houston was healthy. We beat them by 25.

This turned out to be a pretty good team when we were healthy. For us to win these two games to go to a Final Four without Wrightsell, who was playing unbelievably well, as good as any guard we have, shows a lot about the character of the team. And Wrightsell was as good of an assistant coach as we had on the bench these last two games. He’s been great.

But this team has come a long ways, the program, the staff. I’ve got three brand new assistants. I’m happy for the three assistants that left that helped lay this foundation for other people that have moved on that laid the foundation.

To be honest with you, some previous coaches, we walked into a pretty good talent pool. Avery did a pretty good job getting talent here. We were able to win in our second-year with the talent he brought in – Herb, Petty, Reese.

So you don’t want to ignore the fact that a pretty good foundation – Greg Byrne knows what he’s doing – gives us everything we need to succeed. And here we are, in the school’s first ever Final Four.

When I got the job, I thought before I ever took the job, Rick, my agent and me talked, and he said, look, they’ve got all the resources you need to be able to win at Alabama. We need to go get this job. I trust him. He knows what he’s doing.

They do have all the resources you need to win. We put together a few good teams. You just need to keep knocking on the door.

Last year, overall No. 1 seed, we should have been in the Final Four, doesn’t work that way. The best team doesn’t always win because it’s a one-game elimination tournament. You’ve got to be hot at the right time. And we looked like we were not hot at the right time losing, what, four of our last six going into this tournament.

But our staff was…