Oats said he'd spoken to a longtime friend in the NBA who told him it's all down to getting back to fundamentals, including improvement in guarding one-on-one, boxing out, sprinting back and communicating. He added that leadership on that starts from the top down, including himself.

Missouri's student section displayed a sign directed at Alabama's coach, Nate Oats, that read "DO NOT TOUCH OUR PLAYERS". The sign references an incident from the previous year where Oats physically separated players during a heated moment in a game against Missouri.