Auburn basketball fans never take it easy on Nate Oats, and after his latest divisive comments about his own team, that doesn’t appear likely to change.
At a World Games event in Birmingham, Oats called out teenagers and student-athletes in their early 20s for their performance this past season:
"“If you can’t sublimate yourself to the team after you make yourself as good as you can be, like, all your individual goals aren’t going to come about. And that kind of happened this year, to be honest with you.”"
That had Tiger fans feeling bad for the Crimson Tide players that have to put up with a coach that will throw them under the bus with no warning:
“…and I will throw your ass under the bus in a heartbeat,” Nate Oats https://t.co/TwqMLpsT4x
— Auburn Tweeter (@Auburn_Tweeter) May 24, 2022
Maybe as their head coach you should have a big hand in that. No? https://t.co/0sVE0JY998
— BigBarnerBrand 🥶 (@BigBarnerBrand) May 24, 2022
It's not nate's fault. It's his player's fault.
— Let's play golf ⛳ (@Johnc0562Kenny) May 24, 2022
To give Oats the smallest smidgen of credit, he did take just a bit of responsibility for his team’s lack of success in 2021-22, where they were bounced from the Round of 64 as the No. 6 seed by underdog Notre Dame:
"“We’ve got to do a better job teaching our guys, coaching our guys, educating them on how to be leaders. We’re going to try to do that. Some of that is you’ve got to recruit them in, too."
Auburn basketball fans, who do you think Nate Oats was talking about?
Nate Oats’ criticism is interesting, because there’s only so many guys he can conceivably be calling out.
Who do you think he was talking about Tiger fans? Drop your guess in the comments below!