After finishing his playing career at Maranatha Baptist, Oats became a member of the team's coaching staff in 1997, where he remained until 2000. He then served as an assistant men's basketball coach for the Division-III University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. After the 2002 season, Oats left Wisconsin–Whitewater to become the head basketball coach and a teacher at Romulus High School near Detroit. Over 11 years at Romulus, Oats accumulated a 222–52 record and reached the semifinals of the state tournament five times. 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. He won similar coaching awards in 2005, 2008 and 2009.
While recruiting Romulus guard E. C. Matthews on behalf of Rhode Island in 2013, Bobby Hurley was impressed by Oats' coaching. Shortly thereafter, Hurley was named the head coach at Buffalo and hired Oats as an assistant on his staff. During his two-year tenure as an assistant, Buffalo had a 42–20 record, won their first Mid-American Conference Tournament and made their first ever NCAA Tournament appearance. As an assistant at Buffalo, Oats was credited with recruiting Justin Moss, who would go on to win the 2014–15 MACPlayer of the year award. On April 9, 2015, the same day that Bobby Hurley announced that he would be leaving Buffalo to take the head coaching job at Arizona State, Oats was named the interim head coach at Buffalo. 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. Also, Hurley told White that he would hire Oats at Arizona State if White didn't hire him permanently. In a 2019 ESPN story on Oats, White recalled, "What stood out is the connections he had with our players. His reputation as a high school coach -- most people I asked said he ran it like a Division I college program. Players had a strong relationship with him." On April 13, Oats was officially given the head coaching job; his base salary was $250,000. The Buffalo roster for his first season as a head coach featured two former Romulus players: Christian Pino and Raheem Johnson. In Oats' first season as head coach of Buffalo, he led the Bulls to a 3rd place tie in the Mid-American Conference standings. In the MAC Tournament, Buffalo defeated Miami University, Ohio, and then top-seeded Akron to claim the 2016 conference tournament championship. This has been regarded as an impressive feat due to the offseason turnaround that Oats faced. 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 then-departed Bobby Hurley. On May 18, 2016, Buffalo Athletic Director Allen Greene announced that the school had agreed on a new five-year contract with Oats. In Oats' third season, 2017–18, the Bulls began conference play with eight straight wins, the best conference start in team history. The Bulls finished the 2017–18 MAC schedule with a 15–3 record, and Oats was named MAC coach of the year as the Bulls won outright the conference regular season for the first time in team history. The Bulls went on to win the 2018 MAC tournament. On March 8, 2018, Oats signed a contract extension with the University at Buffalo to remain head basketball coach through 2023. Oats' Buffalo Bulls went on to the 2018 NCAA Tournament seeded 13th in the South Region where they convincingly beat the favored 4th seed Arizona Wildcats 89–68. 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. The player with the most such points in a given game receives a construction helmet. During the 2018-19 regular season, Oats led the Bulls to a 28-3 record and was named 2019 MAC Coach of the Year. On March 14, 2019, Oats signed a contract extension with the University at Buffalo to remain head basketball coach through the 2024 season.
Alabama
On March 27, 2019, Oats resigned as head coach of the Bulls to become the head coach of the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team.
Personal life
Oats and his wife Crystal have three daughters, Lexie, Jocie and Brielle. In November 2015, Oats announced on his Facebook page that his wife had an aggressive form of lymphoma and would be undergoing chemotherapy. With his wife's encouragement, he confirmed that he would not be renouncing his coaching duties. Oats is a Christian.
