Michigan basketball will have a new head coach going into the 2024-25 season, but it won’t be Alabama head coach Nate Oats.

Oats, who has ties to the state of Michigan, has been brought up before in connection to the Michigan job and was again on Friday after Juwan Howard was fired by Michigan AD Warde Manuel. After his success at Buffalo, and what he’s done at Alabama, it makes a lot of sense.

One Michigan basketball HC target off the board

There have been some off-court issues, but the Crimson Tide are certainly pleased with his performance and proactively locked him up to an extension to avoid a pursuit by the Wolverines. At least that’s what I assume, considering the timing of it all.

BREAKING: Nate Oats and Alabama have agreed a long-term contract extension that will make him one of the five highest-paid coaches in the country, sources told ESPN. Needs board approval. Oats has led the Tide to two SEC regular-season titles and two conference tourney titles. pic.twitter.com/nJqaqnmaUC

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 15, 2024

Honestly, Oats felt like a long shot to me. It’s hard to flesh out realistic candidates. I put together a list on Friday that included the likes of Porter Moser, Shaka Smart, and Dusty May. Smart might not be attainable, but the interest was there in the past. May will be tough to land with other schools in the mix, but Moser seems ready to leave Oklahoma, and Michigan basketball feels like it would appeal to him.

Moser has coached a team to the Final Four — in fact, all three coaches listed above have. That’s not going to make it easy for the Wolverines to hire them. It’s also going to cost some money. Plus, it remains to be seen how aggressive (financially) Maneul will be in his pursuit of a new head coach.

There are plenty of good options. But one option off the board is Nate Oats.

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