Oats grew up in Watertown, Wisconsin, where he was a three-year starter on the Maranatha Academy high school basketball team which went 24–0 in his senior year.
In 2013, Oats led the team to a 27–1 record and a state Class A championship en route to winning multiple coach of the year honors from the local press.
[7] During the days immediately after Hurley announced his departure, Buffalo's athletic director at the time, Danny White, interviewed the team's players, all of whom advocated for Oats becoming the permanent head coach.
[9] The Buffalo roster for his first season as a head coach featured two former Romulus players: Christian Pino and Raheem Johnson.
[5] In Oats' first season as head coach of Buffalo, he led the Bulls to a 3rd place tie in the Mid-American Conference standings.
2015 MAC Player of the Year Justin Moss was dismissed from the university and second-leading scorer Shannon Evans transferred to Arizona State to play for the newly departed Bobby Hurley.
[18] Oats briefly described his coaching philosophy in the aforementioned 2019 ESPN story, saying, "We did a culture playbook two summers ago and our three main beliefs — core values, we call them — are max effort, continuous growth and selfless love."
Since taking over as Buffalo head coach, Oats added what the story called "a blue-collar element to his program that reflects Buffalo itself" — the coaching staff charts what it calls "blue-collar points", defined as any play that contributes to a win but is not recorded in a traditional box score, with examples including but not limited to pass deflections and taking charges.
[19][20] On March 14, 2019, Oats signed a contract extension with the University at Buffalo to remain head basketball coach through the 2024 season.
[21] On March 27, 2019, athletic director Greg Byrne named Oats the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide.
On March 30, 2024, Oats led the Crimson Tide to a victory of 89-82 over the Clemson Tigers and secured Alabama's first Final Four appearance in the program’s history.