Former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban was in attendance Saturday afternoon for the Tide's big basketball victory over Texas A&M, 100-75.

After the game, I heard from Nate Oats himself that Saban didn't just attend the game, he rallied the players beforehand.

Coach Oats and Coach Saban were incredibly fortunate to have been together for this long.

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— Sideline – Bama (@SSN_Alabama) February 19, 2024

“To me, he's probably the best team coach in any team sport in the history of modern college sports, and he's right here,” Oats said in the postgame press conference.

“I spoke to him right after he retired and he told me when he was coming back to town, so I asked if he would mind if I spoke to the team and it worked out that he was off this week. ”

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“I thought it would be good for the players to hear from a respected coach like him about what it takes to win…He's great.'' He said, “I don't know much about basketball, but from football… Here's what you can apply.” I thought he was really good, obviously he's won a lot of matches. I tried to learn as much as I could from him and was lucky to spend five seasons of football with him here. ”

Oates went on to say he will continue to seek advice from Saban.

“Look, if he's here, I'm going to keep picking his brain and see if he can still keep talking to our team after all these years.”