Alabama's Nate Oats ponders Coach K's comments: Would he say the same if Duke 'hadn't lost'?

A day after Duke's Mike Krzyzewski questioned whether college basketball teams should even be playing during a pandemic, Alabama's Nate Oats on Wednesday offered a counterpoint.

"I think we'd have a whole lot more problems if we weren't playing games," the Crimson Tide coach said at a press conference. "We 100% should be playing basketball."

Since the start of the season on Nov. 25, nearly 90% of Division I programs have played at least one game. However, a number of games have been postponed due to coronavirus outbreaks on an almost daily basis. 

Krzyzewski called for a reassessment of the situation "for the mental health and safety of our players and staff," but Oats pushed back on that idea.

"Humans aren't made to sit alone in isolation for weeks and weeks on end ... A huge part of life for all these guys I'm coaching is being in the gym playing basketball. I think their mental health is in a much better spot playing basketball," Oats said. "And I think the school, the SEC and the NCAA has done a really good job making sure that we're not putting any of them them in danger."

In response to a reporter's question about Krzyzewski's comments, Oats wondered aloud whether or not Coach K would have felt the same way if he hadn't just "lost two non-conference games at home."

Alabama (3-1) was ranked 25th in the preseason Paste BN Sports men's college basketball poll, but dropped out of the top 25 in the most recent release.