Alabama coach Nate Oats’s comments regarding forward Brandon Miller on Tuesday drew shock and condemnation from analysts and fans throughout the college basketball world—a list that now includes the game’s most visible television personality.
Longtime ESPN analyst Dick Vitale denounced Oats’s defense of Miller, whom police allege gave former teammate Darius Miles the gun he allegedly used to kill 23-year-old Jamea Harris on Jan. 15 in Tuscaloosa, Ala.
“I was shocked by the comments of Nate Oats yesterday but I am doubly shocked that superstar Brandon Miller is scheduled to play tonight,” Vitale wrote Wednesday afternoon ahead of the Crimson Tide’s night game at South Carolina. “Isn’t providing a gun to a teammate that was used in a murder a serious offense?”
