In college basketball, scheduling is more art than science. It’s also a philosophy. Ever since Nate Oats was the head coach and math teacher at Romulus (Mich.) High School, he hewed to the formulaic belief that the harder the competition, the greater the lesson. “Sometimes you almost need a loss, to be honest with you,” he said.
If that’s the case, then Oats got what he needed Friday night, when his No. 2 Alabama Crimson Tide was knocked off by No. 13 Purdue, 87-78, in a predictably pitched environment inside Mackey Arena. There should be plenty of learning ahead because Alabama has now embarked on a seven-game nonconference gauntlet that may be unprecedented in modern college basketball history.
