Nate Oats Introduced as Buffalo Bulls Head Coach: Quotes, soundbites, and instant reactions

If you missed Nate Oats' introductory press conference this afternoon, you can watch the whole thing here, or you can keep reading within this post for the money quotes (the ones I was able to transcribe anyway):

To start off, Jon Fuller introduced Satish Tripath:.

University President Tripathi on Oats: "He's a UB Bull through-and-through."

Athletic Director Danny White:

"The first thing we do is ask for involvement and feedback amongst the student-athletes themselves."

"Obviously a lot has gone right in our Men's Basketball program, but what can we do to improve."

"We had a tremendous amount of interest in this job."

The choice was "pretty obvious for me."

Head Coach Nate Oats:

"I've been on the phone, I think, 20 out of 24 hours [the last three days]."

"There's not going to be a whole lot of change, to be honest with you. I don't think there's a reason to fix what's broke."

"[The Bowling Green game] was a big-time environment. We wanna see that for all the games."

"We got almost the entire team coming back; we only had two seniors last year. We plan not just on making it back, but on taking the next step."

On the biggest challenge:

"One of the learning curves I'm not going to have is being a head coach."

On player retention:

"They wanted me as coach."

"We're gonna get some time to sit down individually with each player and see what their role is."

"I would anticipate most of them being back here."

Both Nate Navigato and Nick Perkins told Oats that if he were hired, they'd remain with Buffalo.

On replicating success of 2015:

"We had a lot of underclassmen contribute... they feel they should have won that first game."

On pressure for 2016:

"[A return to the NCAA] is the expectation... I think that's a good pressure. I'd rather that pressure to the other way. ...  I like a little pressure on me."

On filling out the staff:

Two potential assistants have been in since the hire.

"Once we announce the staff here, in the next week, two weeks, whatever it takes, I think everyone's going to be shocked at how good a staff we put together."

On transitioning from assistant to head coach with the team:

"The head coach has to crack down a little more."

"I'm cool with them, obviously they supported me in this process."

"We're gonna get great assistants to help out."

***

In general, Oats was straightforward in answering the questions and the press conference didn't have many surprises, which was to be expected given the quick timeline here and the continuity in place when you elevate an assistant coach.

Oats' two big talking points were the connection he has with the players and newer faces already, and an apparent confidence in his eventual assistants.