Alabama men's basketball coach Nate Oats apologized for shoving Missouri forward Aidan Shaw onto his bench during a confrontation between Shaw and Alabama guard Aaron Estrada in the Crimson Tide's 93-75 win on Tuesday.
Estrada had fouled Missouri's Anthony Robinson II after a rebound with 7:34 left in the first half. The two players tangled and Shaw approached Estrada as Robinson walked away. Oats then stepped between Estrada and Shaw to separate them and pushed Shaw in the direction of the Missouri bench.
After the game, Oats said he apologized to both Shaw and Missouri coach Dennis Gates.
“I have all the respect in the world for the job. [Gates has] done as an assistant and head coach,” Oats said. “No disrespect to him or his program. I apologized to both Coach Gates and Aidan Shaw. Aidan seems like a great kid. “It's an unfortunate situation, but I apologize to both of them.”
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey publicly rebuked Oats in a statement Wednesday.
“Nate Oats' actions were unacceptable and violated the expectations of conduct and sportsmanship established by members of the Southeastern Conference,” Sankey said. “Under no circumstances should a coach make intentional contact with a student-athlete on the opposing team.”
In the postgame press conference, Gates confirmed that Oats apologized but also questioned why he was not assessed a technical foul.
“Nate apologized after the game,” Gates said. “But I just posed the question: If they were players in a huddle with a hand on an opponent, what would happen? It would be an automatic technical foul, right? I thought I saw two referees in the huddle. It wasn't like that.” “It's not a technical foul. But that's the question I would ask. If players made contact with their hands, what would happen?”
There are no specific guidelines for this in the SEC Commissioner's Rules for 2023-24, other than a reference to SEC Bylaw 10.5, which states: “All persons employed by or associated with an isolation member, including members of the institutional staff, student-athletes, boosters and fans are expected to conduct themselves with honesty, integrity and good sportsmanship and, therefore, shall show respect and courtesy toward opposing student-athletes, coaches and game officials.”
There were no further incidents in Alabama's victory, after which Oats ran to the half-court line as the final buzzer sounded to shake Gates' hand and speak with him before the rest of his team and staff.
Alabama has now won six straight games to improve to 12-5 overall and 4-0 in the SEC, while Missouri (8-9, 0-4) has lost four in a row and seven of its last eight.
