We all know college athletes have a tendency to make bad decisions, and Alabama has dealt with it quite brutally in recent months.
Its top-seeded basketball team was rocked by a capital murder charge against (now) former player Darius Miles, an incident in which presumed top-five pick Brandon Miller was involved. How involved is still fairly unclear.
Despite transporting the eventual murder weapon to Miles, Miller was only treated as a witness by police and never considered a suspect. As a result, head coach Nate Oats and the Alabama administration allowed Miller to continue playing in a move that was seemingly only made to preserve the Tide’s best ever basketball season.
Here’s what Oats said in his first public statement after the incident:
“We knew about [Miller’s involvement in the incident]. Can’t control everything anybody does outside of practice. Nobody knew that was going to happen. College kids are out, Brandon hasn’t been in any type of trouble nor is he in any type of trouble in this case. Wrong spot at the wrong time.”
“Wrong spot at the wrong time.” Huh?
Enough’s been said about how off-base Oats was by making these comments, so I won’t spend the energy to go any further. Just remember that the exact words out of his mouth were “wrong spot at the wrong time.”
Meanwhile, Alabama’s major-sport counterpart on the gridiron clearly understands how these things should work.
Freshly recruited DB Tony Mitchell was suspended indefinitely after being arrested with 226 grams of marijuana and $7,000 cash in his vehicle, among other things.
The police report also stated that Mitchell drove as fast as 141 MPH (!!) to avoid police.
Mitchell was suspended almost immediately upon news of his arrest. Saban didn’t waste any time challenging his university and its handling of other recent events.
In his first presser after the Mitchell news, here’s what Saban had to say:
“Everybody’s got an opportunity to make choices and decisions. There’s no such thing as being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
I’ve seen Alabama fans and others on the internet call the parallel verbiage a “coincidence,” or claim Saban was just “challenging his team,” but it’s no mistake that Saban used the exact same phrase as Oats did in similar circumstances.
Of course, the situations aren’t exactly the same. Brandon Miller isn’t a suspect but Tony Mitchell obviously committed a crime. But still, by using those exact words, Saban eviscerated his basketball counterpart.
What makes it better (or worse, if you’re Alabama) is that intent in this case doesn’t really matter. Saban said what he said, and given the timing, it’s a shot at Oats’ basketball program whether or not he meant it.
Personally, I love seeing this from Saban. It’s obvious from reading about the Miles/Miller saga that the basketball staff at Alabama didn’t have great control over its players, and Saban was very clear in his presser that he wants to challenge the entire university – not just his own football team – to maintain tighter control over student athletes.
After all, we are talking about college students. Athletes or not, they tend to do some pretty dumb stuff. The fact that Oats seems ignorant to that, if I had to guess, probably disturbed Saban at least a little bit.
The icing on the cake is that, earlier today, Saban showed up at Alabama’s basketball practice as they prepared for the Sweet 16.
I guess you could say Nick Saban knew to be at the right place at the right time.
Follow Nick Hedges on Twitter @nicktrimshedges or Instagram @nicktrimshedges