TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — The Southeastern Conference reprimanded Alabama coach Nate Oats on Wednesday for making physical contact with a Missouri player.
Oats pushed Missouri's Aidan Shaw away from Alabama's bench during a first-half timeout in the Crimson Tide's 93-75 victory on Tuesday night.
“Nate Oats’ actions were unacceptable and violated the expectations for conduct and sportsmanship as established by the membership of the Southeastern Conference,” Commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “Under no circumstances should a coach make intentional contact with a student-athlete on an opposing team.”
Oats opened his postgame news conference by addressing the incident and said he apologized to both Shaw, a 6-foot-8 sophomore forward from Blue Valley High School, and Missouri coach Dennis Gates.
“No disrespect to him or his program,” Oats said of Gates. “I apologized to both coach Gates and Aidan Shaw. Aidan seems like a great kid and that was an unfortunate situation, but I apologized to both of them.”
A preseason commissioner’s memorandum on sportsmanship said, in part, that “coaches should make every reasonable effort to engage with the student-athletes from their team (rather than the student-athletes and coaches from the opposing team).”
The incident, which didn't result in a technical foul, followed a foul against Alabama's Aaron Estrada that led to a brief scuffle between Estrada and Anthony Robinson.
Three technical fouls were called in the game, against Alabama's Grant Nelson and Latrell Wrightsell Jr. and Missouri's Noah Carter.
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