Oats Commends Houston Mallette Following Senior Night Win

Following Alabama’s series sweeping 96-84 win over Auburn on Senior Night this Saturday, the Crimson Tide’s head coach, Nate Oats, praised his graduate guard Houston Mallette who played his last game in Coleman Coliseum tonight, alongside Noah Williamson and Latrell Wrightsell where the head coach gave insigt on what each of them has brought to this team and the younger player. Still, he emphasized Mallette’s contributions to this program.

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Mallette, who transferred to the Crimson Tide in 2024 from his former school, Pepperdine. The talented guard made his debut with the Tide in December of 2024; unfortunately, knee issues kept him out for the entire 2024-2025 season, with Mallette later being granted a medical redshirt, which allowed him to come back and play with Alabama for the 2025-2026 season, where he has been a huge piece to this squad with Malette doing the dirty work and playing great defense with great intensity. He might not drop crazy scoring numbers, but he is a sharp shooter when needed, as shown in Alabama’s double overtime win against Arkansas back in February, which saw him nail a three with a little over 40 seconds left in the second overtime to give Alabama a four-point lead, which they held on to for the two-point win.

Oats talked about what Mallette brings to this team. He also spoke on the embrace that the two shared at the end of the game when Oats pulled Mallette out. The crowd gave him a standing ovation, with the Crimson Tide’s head coach going on to share how great a player Mallette is not only for his skills on the court, but for his character. He is a culture builder with Oats, sharing that he kept Mallette out there longer because he wanted him to at least score a point on senior night. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen, but it didn’t bother Mallette, with Oats stating that the Graduate guard didn’t care if he scored or not; he just wanted to go out on senior night with a win.

“Listen Houston Mallette is one of the highest character, best culture builder players i’ve ever coached like when i tell you that he didn’t really care that he didn’t score a point, but his whole family is here and it’s senior night like i really wished they’d call one and let him shoot some freethrows and atleast get a point.” Oats said, “I just kept leaving Houston in there hoping he’d get a point on senior night, finally, like when the refs didn’t call a foul there. One, we had to get him out so the crowd could acknowledge him, so yeah, I love him, he’s great, and as you said, for these young guys to look up and see the type of example that he sets.”

Although Mallette didn’t score tonight, he will have some more opportunities, especially next Friday, March 13th, when they will face the winner of the eight-seed Missouri and whoever wins Wednesday’s game between the nine-seed Kentucky and the 16-seed LSU.

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