Alabama head coach Nate Oats gets brutally honest on upcoming season

This past March, the Alabama Crimson Tide made their first Final Four appearance in program history , capping off what was arguably the best basketball season in school history. For many schools, an accomplishment like this one would be enough to remain content heading into the following season. But seven months later, the collective mindset in Tuscaloosa is "why stop there?"

Nobody within the Alabama basketball program is shying away from the lofty expectations that exist both inside and outside the building. And for the record, these aren't just expectations of a repeat Final Four appearance. Sure, cutting down the nets to go to the Final Four is nice. But doing so after the National Championship Game is even nicer. And that's what Alabama head coach Nate Oats wants his squad to be thinking about .

"I like the fact that they've got big goals," Oats said, per Blake Byler of On3 Sports. "I don't think we want guys that are selling themselves short. I think we've got the talent, that's what we should be talking about."

This is exactly what star point guard Mark Sears saw as well. After ending the 2023-24 season as a 2nd-team All-American and the Most Outstanding Player of the West Region in the NCAA Tournament, Sears flirted with the idea of turning pro , but at the last minute, decided to come back to Alabama after he saw the sort of team that Nate Oats was building.

"When I was in the draft process, I was keeping up and seeing the roster the coaching staff was putting together," Sears said. "And I was like, 'man this roster could contend for a national championship.' And I wanted to be a part of it."

Now, Mark Sears is preseason 1st-Team All-American and widely expected to contend for National Player of the Year on a team that could break through and bring this traditional football school their first men's basketball title.

Mark Sears, Alabama hoping to build on 2024 Final Four appearance

Alabama's path to a National Championship won't be an easy one. The UConn Huskies, the back to back National Champions, have reloaded and put together a roster that head coach Dan Hurley has said he believes may be his most talented yet . The Big 12 has five teams ranked in the top ten. And even though Bama is the current betting favorite to win their 9th SEC title, there are eight other programs in the conference that are ranked in the AP Top 25 preseason poll.

The Tide will be tested early on. Alabama will play Purdue, Illinois, Houston, Rutgers, North Carolina and Creighton during a brutal month-long gauntlet that extends from mid-November to mid-December. But this rigorous schedule will help the Tide in the long run, and Nate Oats knows that.

"You look at, UConn's won the last two, you look at the first one they won, I think they lost five of seven games in a stretch there in January or something. There's lots of things that happen through a season that make you better to get you to the point you can win."

Winning at the highest level is all that matters at Alabama this year.