Oats named interim head coach

Danny White, UB athletic director, has named Nate Oats as interim head coach of the men's basketball program.

White made the announcement last Thursday, following Coach Bobby Hurley’s acceptance of the head men's basketball coaching position at Arizona State. White has quickly begun the evaluation process and a search for a new head coach of the men's basketball program is underway.

"We would like to thank Bobby for his contributions growing our men's basketball program," said White.  "It is important for us to continue to build on the success with a new leader and I am extremely confident that we will find a leader who can take our program to even greater heights."

Oats has spent the last two seasons with the Bulls as the lead assistant and recruiting coordinator.  Under Oats' assistance, the Bulls won back-to-back MAC East Titles, culminating with the MAC Tournament Championship and UB's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament this year.

Prior to joining the Bulls, Oats completed 11 seasons as head coach at Romulus High School in Michigan, winning the school's first state title in 27 years in 2012-13 and finished the season 27-1. He was named the 2013 Detroit News State Coach of the Year, the Detroit Free Press State Coach of the Year and BCAM State Coach of the Year.

Prior honors include the 2009 Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan Class A Coach of the Year, the 2008 Detroit Free Press Metro Detroit Coach of the Year and the 2005 Detroit News Metro Detroit Coach of the Year & Detroit Free Press Metro West Coach of the Year.

In his time as head coach, he led the team to a 222-52 overall record and seven straight conference championships while going undefeated in conference play in the past four consecutive seasons. The team was ranked in the Top 25 nationally on three different occasions (2010, 2011, 2013) and made the Michigan Class A Final Four five times. More importantly, he oversaw a program that had a 100 percent graduation rate and 40 of his 42 seniors at Romulus continued on to college. 

Before coaching at Romulus, he played college basketball and eventually became an assistant at Marantha College in Wisconsin from 1997 to 2000 while earning his bachelor's degree in mathematics. As a player, he was a captain and All-Conference performer. After that, he moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from 2000-02.