Alabama basketball assistant coach Austin Claunch was named the new head coach of UTSA, but Nate Oats says he will stay with the Crimson Tide through its NCAA Tournament run.
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00:00 This is a little off topic, but UTSA announced that coach Clontz was going to be their new head coach.
00:05 Just what do you find the job that he's done this season and is the expectation he'll stick around with you guys through the tournament?
00:10 Yeah, he's definitely sticking around with us. This is his first tournament he's been in. He wants to make a run.
00:15 I mean, he's been great for the program. You know, I talk about when the tide rises, all the boats rise.
00:21 You know, we had a good year. Obviously, we would like to have had a better year.
00:24 And when you're comparing what we've done, the number one overall seed last year and two Sweet 16s in the previous three years,
00:31 four SEC trophies in the previous three years, you know, some people may look at it as a little disappointing.
00:38 We're a four seed. They've, Alabama's never been a four seed or higher in back-to-back tournaments in school history.
00:45 You know, Austin, for us to lose the entire staff and then come in and lose, you know, 75, 80% of the roster,
00:53 to do what we did this year is pretty good. You got to give the staff a lot of credit.
00:57 I think, you know, the AD at San Antonio, I talked to Lisa for a little bit yesterday.
01:05 I think Austin's going to be awesome. Was a great head coach before he got here.
01:10 I think he'll do a great job there. I'm super happy for him. Talked to him a lot over the last 24 hours about this.
01:16 Like, I'm all for taking care of your players, whatever's best for them.
01:21 You know, we found out Tony's going to be a first round pick. Like, you got to go, like, find out Austin can get a job this good
01:29 in the American Conference after one year with us. Like, it's a good job to take it. You need to go take it.
01:35 But we need you locked in on trying to make as deep a run as we can in the NCAA tournament.
01:41 So happy for Austin. He's a great culture guy. Great mind as a head coach. Brought a lot to the program.
01:49 You know, we both learned from each other in the year he was here. I think he'll do great.
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