Here is how stupid Nate Oats is…
Alabama‘s next two games are at South Carolina, arguably the worst team in the SEC, and hosting Arkansas, a middle of the pack conference team that doesn’t play very well on the road.
Think about how differently the story would be playing right now if Nate had come out today and said, “we are disappointed in Brandon and think he should show better judgment than this. While we know that no crime was committed our standards here at the University of Alabama are higher than that. Brandon will be internally punished and suspended for our next two basketball games.“
And, just for the sake of argument, let’s say they actually lose one of these next two games. Well, no one is going to count it as meaning anything because they were playing without Brandon Miller. In fact, by suspending him Nate Oates actually buys his team a convenient excuse if they happen to lay an egg in one of these games. Winning these games, against a pair of mediocre opponents, doesn’t enhance Alabama‘s résumé at all. A loss though would be damaging. If Nate Oates suspended his star player he would actually buy himself an excuse just in case something bad happens in the next couple games.