Oats named men’s head basketball coach

Nate Oats, UB’s top assistant and recruiting coordinator for the past two seasons, has been named the 13th men's head basketball coach at the university, athletics director Danny White announced on Saturday.

"After hours of conversations with Nate, it became very clear to me that the best candidate to lead our men’s basketball team was already on campus," said White. "Nate has tremendous experience as one of the finest coaches in America at both the collegiate and high school levels, and played an absolutely critical role in elevating our program to the NCAA Tournament, for the first time ever, in just two years. I am extremely confident that UB men's basketball will continue to grow and reach new heights under Nate's leadership. To be sure, Alumni Arena will be an electric environment again next year as these talented student-athletes fight to defend their Mid-American Conference Championship."

In his two seasons as an assistant coach under Bobby Hurley, who was named head coach at Arizona State last week, Oats helped lead the Bulls to a 42-20 record, back-to-back MAC East titles, a MAC regular season title, a MAC Tournament title and UB's first ever trip to the NCAA Tournament. Oats was also responsible for recruiting Justin Moss, the 2014-15 MAC Player of the Year.

"I want to thank President Tripathi, Danny White and our entire administration for giving me this opportunity to lead the men's basketball program," said Oats. "I also want to thank Coach Hurley for giving me this opportunity two years ago and the players for helping me get to this current position. I have witnessed the potential of not only our team, but the entire athletic department over the last two years and I can't wait to continue to coach these young men," he said.

“We are starting to establish a great tradition of success here and I am extremely excited about getting to work with the coaching staff and players in order to focus on carrying that tradition forward into the future."

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 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 and 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 four consecutive seasons. The team was ranked in the top 25 nationally on three different occasions (2010, 2011 and 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 continuing on to college.

Before coaching at Romulus, Oats played college basketball at Marantha Baptist University in Wisconsin where was a captain and All-Conference performer while earning his bachelor's degree in math education. He went on to become an assistant coach at Marantha from 1997 to 2000. After that, he moved on to the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater from 2000-02.

An introductory press conference that is open to the public will be held at 3 p.m. Monday in Alumni Arena.