Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne was asked how he felt last month when suddenly Kentucky basketball had an opening at head coach after John Calipari unexpectedly stepped down to take the job at Arkansas.

A month earlier, Byrne had given Nate Oats a new contract — with reportedly the biggest buyout on record in basketball at $18 million — and here was another school that seemed poise to try to hire him away.

“Did that happen?” Byrne joked. “I had no idea.”

Appearing on The Next Round podcast, Byrne addressed the Kentucky rumors and Oats’ commitment to the program long-term.

Byrne acknowledged that the Wildcats have a top-three program. He worked there as a fundraiser in the 2000’s, so he ought to know. The support for Kentucky basketball and Alabama basketball, he said, have a “lot of similarities.”

So Byrne didn’t take the situation for granted. He said that he and Oats spoke “several times.”

A big focus: facilities.

Byrne knows that everyone cares about the new basketball arena and when that project will begin. He joked that he’s asked about it only 8,000 times a week. And they’ve been fortunate, he said, that they’ve raise a lot of money for it. It remains a priority, but within the context of having to navigate “turbulent waters” and keeping the focus on NIL.

“If you really talk to most coaches,” Byrne said, “they’re not going to be as concerned about the game day and what that looks like. They want it to be good, don’t get me wrong. But they’re much more concerned about their classroom, which for a basketball coach is the gym. So we’ve got some things we are going to we’re working on to address that in a much shorter timeframe. That will benefit our men’s basketball program and benefit or women’s basketball program, too. 

“And so we were able to talk a little bit more about that because during the season I didn’t bother him a whole lot about that because I want him to be focused on his team. But we had already started talking about that and we just had a couple more conversations once the news [about Kentucky broke]. But he made it very clear to me he wanted to be here and I think his actions once again back up as his words.”

Byrne said he wasn’t a prophet when he gave Oats his new deal before the NCAA tournament. The contract, which runs through the 2029-30 season, starts Oats out with a $5 million salary and includes annual increases to $7.55 million by the last year. When Oats then led Alabama all the way to the final four, those figures looked even better in retrospect.

“We believe in Nate and the job that he’s done,” Byrne said. “The kids like playing for him. You know, we’ve had a few kids go into transfer portal in the last few days. We were anticipating that. It’s the world we’re in right now. So the way he has developed in our program — young men want to play for him; kids have a real affinity for him as their coach; he’s ahead of the curve offensively and preaches defense all the time; recruits his tail off. He and I talked twice yesterday and a lot of the conversation was about recruiting and where we are right now. 

“So we’re really proud of him. We knew he wanted to be the our coach for hopefully the rest of his career. And we stepped up. But the thing I love so much about him is as I said, ‘Nate, if we’re going to invest in you at this level, I want you to make that same commitment back to us.’ … I said, ‘Our fan base wants to know that you are just as committed to the University of Alabama as we are to you.’ And he’s like — you know Nate — ‘Shoot, yeah.’ So he’s been awesome.”