Nate Oats complimentary of transfer portal addition Chris Youngblood

It has been a wild couple of months for Nate Oats and the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team. After a historic run leading the Tide to its first-ever Final Four appearance, Coach Oats and his staff put together one of the best signing classes in the country from the high school ranks and via the NCAA transfer portal.

On Tuesday while speaking at an event for the Crimson Tide’s NIL collective, Yea Alabama, Coach Oats would give a glowing review of one of Alabama’s portal additions, South Florida guard Chris Youngblood.

“Shoot, Youngblood hasn’t been talked about enough, in my opinion. Johnell Davis is obviously a really good player,” Oats said. “Well, Youngblood was player of the year in that league, along with him. He’s a super talented player, and he’s from Tuscaloosa. He grew up in Tuscaloosa until high school when he moved over to the Atlanta area.”

Alabama is still waiting for star point guard Mark Sears to make his NBA draft decision (he has until May 29) but with the transfer of Rylan Griffen, Oats and the Tide need a big guard who can play physically.

“Youngblood gives us that tough, physical, versatile guard,” Oats said. “If you like to play four guards, he’s big, strong, physical, tough. You can play him more as a two [and] you can get really big across the board.”

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