Aaron Estrada was in class at Hofstra when he got the call. The caller introduced himself as if the 6-foot-3 guard, who had just entered the transfer portal, didn’t know who he was already.

At the other end of the line was Alabama men’s basketball head coach Nate Oats

“Just told me that he was interested,” Estrada, speaking at SEC media days, said of the conversation with Oats, who was the first coach to reach out after he entered the portal. “And that he would like to just keep getting to know me and recruit me more, and then I talked to him for five minutes, but I had to go back to class.”

Estrada has been around the block in college basketball. He started his career during the 2019-20 season at St. Peters, before transferring to Oregon for the 2020-21 campaign, then to Hofstra.

He averaged 20.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists last season for the Pride. He won the Colonial Athletic Association’s player of the year award in both of his seasons at Hofstra.

Meanwhile, Alabama needed to replace some offense. It seemed to be a good match.

Besides, Estrada liked Oats. Alabama’s head coach said he’d do his best to help the graduate transfer achieve his long-term goals.

“He proposed to me that his goal for being my coach is to get me to that next level,” Estrada said. “He said that’s ultimately his goal. And a lot of coaches, no, not even a lot, no other coach that recruited me really talked about my next step, they really just talked about what I can do for them this year.”

Last season, Estrada played mostly as a ball-dominant guard, providing a major scoring threat for the Pride. He’ll look to be a major part of the guard rotation at UA and team up with Mark Sears, who made second-team all-SEC last season.

He’s already impressed Oats, who raved about his offensive talents at media days.

“His skill level is really high,” Oats said. “We chart everything in practices. At the rim finishing percentage is as high as any guard I’ve ever had. He can finish. Got the whole finishing package. He shoots it well from three. And he can be a great defender.”

His backcourt teammate, Sears, also gave him a stamp of approval.

“Toughness, an everyday guy,” Sears said. “Bucket-getter, a great teammate.”

The 2023-24 Crimson Tide will look much different from last year’s SEC title team. Besides losing the likes of Miller, Noah Clowney, Charles Bediako and Jahvon Quinerly and more, Alabama saw staff turnover, with three new assistants joining Oats.

Oats said meetings are taking longer, with more questions from all parties, but that’s not a bad thing. The thing that’s not changing is his commitment to the “blue-collar basketball” mindset that has produced the gritty teams Alabama has become known for under its coach.

According to Estrada, he’ll fit right in.

“That’s another reason why I did come here,” Estrada said. “Because everything within blue collar is kind of who I am already, as far as culture-wise and everything. So it was really easy to make a decision from that standpoint, as far as what I’m looking for in a culture of a team. Even though coach Oats didn’t really have a coaching staff and all that stuff, I knew what I wanted within a culture. That’s what those guys bring.”