Why Nate Oats' Final Four should build belief in Kalen DeBoer, Alabama football | Toppmeyer

• Nate Oats is one of several successful hires made by Greg Byrne, Alabama's AD. Why shouldn't Kalen DeBoer be Byrne's next great hire?
• Who saw a March Madness Final Four coming for Alabama basketball? Not me.
• Greg Byrne also hired Dan Mullen, Mississippi State's best coach ever.

As I watched Nate Oats’ basketball team storm into the Final Four, I found another reason to be bullish about Alabama’s hire of football coach Kalen DeBoer.

What does Oats’ continued success on the hardwood have to do with the price of a pigskin in Tuscaloosa?

It provides further proof that Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne knows what he’s doing when he hires coaches.

Succeeding as an AD boils down to two keys: Hiring (and retaining) good coaches, and fundraising.

Byrne’s hiring track record proves why he’s one of the nation’s best ADs.

From Dan Mullen to Nate Oats to Kalen DeBoer

Let’s review Byrne’s major hires across his stints leading Mississippi State, Arizona and Alabama:

∎ At Mississippi State, Byrne hired football coach Dan Mullen. Home run. The Bulldogs punched above their weight with Mullen. He stayed for nine successful seasons, an era that remains the best in program’s history.

∎ Baseball is important to Mississippi State, and Byrne faced a big decision after Ron Polk’s 2008 retirement. Promote longtime assistant Tommy Raffo, or go outside the family? Byrne acted boldly and plundered Kentucky’s coach, John Cohen. The move paid off when MSU reached the College World Series finals in Cohen’s fifth season.

∎ Rich Rodriguez flopped as Michigan’s football coach. That didn’t stop Byrne from hiring Rodriguez off the scrap heap to coach Arizona. Arizona fired Rodriguez in January 2018 after he had an extramarital affair, but I can’t argue with his on-field success. He averaged more than seven wins per season across six years, a solid run by that program’s standards.

∎ Oats might become Byrne’s best work. Byrne went the mid-major route for this hire, but those who follow hoops were aware of Oats’ success at Buffalo. Built on an up-tempo system and a barrage of 3-point attempts, he took the Bulls to the NCAA tournament’s second round in consecutive seasons before Byrne tapped him for his first Power Five job.

Alabama basketball takes wild ride to Final Four

What’s remarkable about Alabama’s success this season is that it was somewhat unexpected.

Alabama returned one starter from last season's team, so Oats assembled a lot of new faces. That included a fresh coaching staff after all of his assistants left to become mid-major head coaches.

The media picked Alabama to finish fifth in the SEC. That prediction seemed on point as the Crimson Tide repeatedly stumbled against a stiff nonconference schedule.

They limped to the finish of the regular season, and after their early exit from the SEC tournament, I admit I didn’t expect their March Madness stay to last long.

Oats had built seemingly superior teams in 2021 and ’23, and the Tide flamed out in the Sweet 16 each time.

Why should this season be any different?

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That’s the funny thing about the NCAA tournament, though. A team like No. 1 North Carolina can go ice cold at the wrong time. A sophomore like Rylan Griffen, who had been struggling recently with his perimeter jumper, can catch fire and drain eight 3s in two games. Veterans like Alabama’s Mark Sears and Grant Nelson can become heroes.

Then you look up and Alabama is in the Final Four for the first time ever.

With each Oats victory, Byrne keeps looking shrewder.

Greg Byrne spots winners

The beauty of Byrne’s hiring strategy? He never reinvented the wheel. He didn’t try to prove how smart he was by hiring some obscure candidate you had to Google to learn who the heck he was.

Mullen had earned acclaim developing Tim Tebow as Urban Meyer’s offensive coordinator. Cohen had proven himself as an SEC coach. Rodriguez was licking his wounds, but he previously crushed it at West Virginia. He was as good of a coach as Arizona could have hoped for. Oats had established himself as the mid-major coach no smart AD could ignore.

And that brings us to DeBoer, the most obvious choice of all, the guy who took Washington to the national championship game just two years after it finished 4-8.

He’s got this, right?

My suggestion to Alabama fans who might be stressed about the transition from Nick Saban to Kalen DeBoer: Take a deep breath, inhale the euphoria of a Final Four, and let Oats' success fill you with confidence in DeBoer.

Every data point suggests DeBoer is an excellent coach, and Byrne knows how to spot a winner.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network's SEC Columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on Twitter @btoppmeyer.

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