Nate Oats, head coach of the Crimson Tide’s basketball team, has been in the news a lot this week. However, it is not for reasons he would probably prefer.

Recently, the team has been embroiled in controversy after two of its players were involved in the shooting death of a young mother in Tuscaloosa.

Darius Miles is accused of owning the gun that killed 23-year-old Jamea Jonae Harris. He is being held on capital murder charges and without bond as of Tuesday.

Brandon Miller, another player, allegedly brought the gun to the scene of the shooting. Miller has not been charged in connection to the murder.

This week, Oats apologized for a comment he made at a press conference immediately after the shooting in regards to Brandon Miller’s involvement.

The comment was, “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 his case. Wrong spot at the wrong time.”

After Bama’s 78-76 win Wednesday night over South Carolina, Oats took responsibility for his words.

“I’m not here to make excuses,” Oats said. “But I want to make clear that I didn’t have the details from the hearing that morning since I was coming straight from practice and I used a poor choice of words, making it appear like I wasn’t taking the tragic situation seriously, which we have throughout the course of it. I sincerely apologize for that.”

Last night, Miller scored a career high of 41 points and hit the game-winning basket for the No. 2-ranked Tide.

Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News.