Alabama's Nate Oats Responds to Coach K Saying NCAA Needs to Reassess Season

Alabama head men's basketball coach Nate Oats believes the college basketball season should still be happening amid the COVID-19 pandemic and suggested Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski only said the sport should "reassess" things because the Blue Devils lost two games. 

"Do you think if Coach K hadn't lost the two nonconference games at home that he'd still be saying that?" Oats asked, per Charlie Potter of 247Sports. "We should be playing, in my opinion. We 100-percent should be playing basketball."

As Myron Medcalf of ESPN shared, Krzyzewski opened up about the state of the sport following Tuesday's loss to Illinois:

"I would just like for the safety, the mental health and the physical health of our players and staff to assess where we're at. In our country today, you have 2,000 deaths a day. You have 200,000 cases, a million and a half last week. You have people saying that the next six weeks are going to be the worst. To me, it's already pretty bad.

"On the other side of it, there are these vaccines that are coming out. People are saying that by the end of the month 20 million vaccine shots will be given. In February, another 100 million. Well, should we not reassess that and see what would be best?"

According to Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Duke does not plan on playing any more nonconference games this season amid its coach's concerns.

Oats is not the only coach to weigh in on Coach K's comments, as Kansas head coach Bill Self said he understood the worries but thinks it is safer to have the controlled environment of basketball for players:

This isn't the first time Coach K raised concerns about the safety of playing amid a pandemic.

Medcalf noted he also suggested the NCAA should consider moving the Big Dance back from March to allow more time to contain the virus with vaccines and other measures. He also said every team in the country should be invited to the tournament to level the playing field some in a season filled with such uncertainty.

Despite those calls, the NCAA still plans on hosting the tournament in March in one location.

Last season's NCAA tournament was one of the first major sporting events to be canceled in the early stages of the pandemic that is still an issue across the country. As Krzyzewski pointed out, cases have climbed in recent weeks, raising questions about the safety of hosting sports in non-bubble environments with travel and other issues.

As for the Blue Devils, they are off to a 2-2 start with losses to Michigan State and Illinois.

Their wins are against Coppin State and Bellarmine, so they have essentially lost in their two real tests to this point. That is surely not the start Krzyzewski wanted, which contributed to Oats' opinion of his comments.