Speaking publicly for the second time since Darius Miles was arrested on Sunday for capital murder, Alabama men’s basketball coach Nate Oats announced Tuesday that he had spoken to former NFL linebacker Ray Lewis following the incident.
“His daughter went to Alabama a year and a half ago,” Oats said during an interview with Crimson Tide Sports Network ahead of Tuesday night’s game in Vanderbilt. “He went through a similar situation in Atlanta. He played in the NFL. He told me what he thinks boys need to hear.”
Oats confirmed in his post-game press conference that he had started the conversation with Lewis.
“I just thought he went through a tragic situation,” Oats said. “One of the mentally stronger athletes of my time. His daughter went to Alabama so I was able to get his number. I talked to him. He didn’t speak to the team or anything. But he kind of talked to me. He is also a man of faith. Just told me to share a few words with him, pray with him. They need that now. His daughter went to school here a year and a half ago, so she’s also pretty upset about the whole situation.”
Lewis is a Pro Football Hall of Fame member and played linebacker for the Baltimore Ravens from 1996 to 2012. Lewis and two of his friends were charged with the murders of two men outside an Atlanta nightclub following Super Bowl XXXIV in January 2000.
The murder charge against Lewis was dropped months later after he pleaded guilty to an obstruction of justice charge in exchange for testifying against the other two men. Lewis received a year’s probation, and his two friends were later acquitted of their murder charges.
Lewis’ daughter, Diaymon Lewis, graduated from Alabama in 2020, according to her LinkedIn bio.
Miles, a now-sacked basketball player from Alabama, and another man, Michael Davis, were arrested Sunday and charged with the early-morning murder of 23-year-old Jamea Harris on the Tuscaloosa Strip. Court documents released Tuesday said police witnesses said Davis fired the shot that killed Harris and Miles admitted to police that he had provided the gun.
Oats revealed his conversation with Lewis when he was asked during his pre-game interview who he relied on following Sunday’s arrest. He mentioned athletics director Greg Byrne and team sports psychologist Brett McCabe, as well as Bobby Hurley, the Arizona men’s basketball coach whom Oats trained under in Buffalo, and Lewis.
“Just different people came forward and I was able to collect different things from different people,” he said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a guy. This was not covered in the college coaching basketball course. This is where you need to get a really good feel for where your guys are. Even when you go into the team briefings, you have to play by ear a bit and see where they are, where their heads are, and go from there.
“A lot of prayer. Read them some Bible verses about how to deal with such things. And really, we sort of echoed your choices. We too can learn from it. Don’t lose a lesson. Let’s learn what we can from it. Hopefully the rest of the team will make better decisions in the future and can really learn from that.”
In his Crimson Tide Sports Network pre-game interview, Oats also went over the team’s reaction to Sunday’s news.
“We spoke as a team. Obviously very emotional,” Oats said. “We had Scotty Hollins, our team chaplain, in there. Greg Byrne, the AD, the staff. kind of talked through a few things. I told the team I would just give them some time to themselves. We had just pushed the team meeting back, back, back until we had any sort of answers.
“After talking for a while, they came up to me and said they weren’t in the right mood to practice [Sunday], which I totally understood. I had left it up to them what we would do that evening. So we gave them the night off. They said they would be ready to go [Monday]. Many of them had not slept.
“Well, come on Monday. Went through Vanderbilt staff, edit day 1. We had [deputy] boss [Severn ‘Sebo’] Sanders speaks to the Tuscaloosa PD team. Then we had practice. I liked the practice. I thought the boys were locked up. I thought it would be a little respite, if you will, to reflect on all the things that they had been thinking about. So we went straight from training to boarding a plane and came here [to Vanderbilt].
“We shot in here last night. Thought it was good. Made a video afterwards. Only more – because normally we would have done some on Sunday. We had to make up [some] time on it. And then told them to go to bed.
“We got up [Tuesday] Morning. Pretty similar to a normal game day. We just made a little more video. We just got more videos in than we would normally have as we missed the Sunday deal. We did a little [Monday] night, a little more than we would have [Tuesday]. We made it. I liked our shooting around. I thought the guys pulled themselves together and said, ‘Let’s really focus in here.’
“So I hope they’re able to focus, focus. It was obviously a minor distraction. It would be a lie to say it wasn’t. There will be many distractions in life. This is a big deal. But you have to be able to regroup, collect yourself and still go to work.
“You and I have been through a lot. Obviously this is maybe a little different. You know how real life works. You have to be able to differentiate yourself a little bit, focus on what you can do, so tonight I’m just hoping they can really focus on what we have to do tonight because we have good basketball played up to here.”
Mike Rodak is an Alabama beat reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @micerodak.