Nate Oats' shove was the talk after Mizzou's loss at Alabama
Alabama beat Missouri 93-75 on Tuesday night in Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide led for the final 35:24 and the game wasn't in any real doubt in the final few minutes. But that doesn't mean the night was without drama.
With 7:34 left in the first half, the teams went to a timeout with Alabama leading 24-15. Tigers Aidan Shaw and Noah Carter were in amongst the Alabama huddle and Crimson Tide head coach Nate Oats didn't particularly appear to want them there.
Oats apologized to Missouri head coach Dennis Gates after the game and opened his post-game press conference with another apology.
"Before I start talking about the game, I just want to address the situation at the under eight media timeout, the scuffle that happened next to our bench," Oats said. "I apologize to both coach Gates and Aidan Shaw and Aidan seems like a great kid. And it's an unfortunate situation, but I apologize to both of them."
Gates didn't seem particuarly perturbed by the interaction after the game. Or at least not Oats' role in it.
"Nate apologized after the game," Gates said. "I’ve known Nate since he was a high school coach in Detroit, but I just posed the question if that was players in a huddle with a hand on an opponent, what would take place? It would be an automatic technical foul, right? I thought I saw two referees in the huddle, it wasn’t a technical foul. But that’s the question I would pose. If it was players making hand contact, what would take place?”
Sources told PowerMizzou.com that Missouri placed calls to the Southeastern Conference offices and to the head of officials about the incident at halftime. Asked if he saw the shove occur, Gates never answered directly.
"“I trust our referees in situations like that and they had it completely in control I believe," he said. "But again I pose the question if players were in the situation where it happened like that, what would it be is the biggest question? What would result in that? I believe because we did say it was a chippy game and that happened when? What time was on the clock? It happened in the first half, right? That was a possibility for us to go to the free throw line but we shot zero free throws. And again, I trust the referees that they had everything under control I guess.”
The free throw disparity again appeared to be Gates' biggest gripe. Missouri did make 20 trips to the line compared to 27 for Alabama. But the Tigers didn't shoot a first half free throw while the Tide took six.
“The chippiness? I thought both teams was playing hard," Gates said. "Ultimately, our guys played hard, they played hard. And that’s what the flow of the game presented. Ultimately during those situations you would want the ball to bounce in your favor, get more baskets or more free throws, but that wasn’t the case. We came away with zero free throws in the first half, but it was a chippy game. You said that right? Right? You said that, correct? But we shot zero free throws In the first half so I don’t know.”
"I think it's a program with a lot of pride," Oats said. "They were good last year. They came in 0-3. They’re probably better than 0-3. They’re fighting, scrapping, clawing, those players that go there, start 0-4, coach Gates is used to winning, I’m sure there’s an edge about him where they needed a win.
"There’s nothing between the programs. I actually really respect Dennis and think he does a great job. I don't think our players had any past history with any of their guys, I just think it’s two teams playing hard, understanding it’s a big win either way."
Gates did, in his closing comments, praise Shaw for walking away and not escalating the situation.
"“I’m proud of Aidan Shaw and his ability to restrain himself and his teammates ability to restrain themselves," he said. "But again Nate apologized after the game, so…”
Gates trailed off, offering an "M-I-Z" but no further comments before the press conference ended.
The Tigers and Crimson Tide are not scheduled to play again in the regular season. Mizzou is back in action at home on Saturday night against Florida.
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