There was a funny moment at the end of Nate Oats’ news conference on Tuesday night after Alabama’s 84-62 thunder punch of Ole Miss.

Oats is in his fourth season as Alabama’s coach, which is how long Avery Johnson lasted in Tuscaloosa. With any luck, and also maybe a new arena, Oats will be around a long time. He’s turning into one of the best college basketball coaches in the country, and his teams play hard, purposeful basketball every night.

Oats is at the point in his career as a basketball coach where his wise-guy persona with reporters is pretty much a fully formed existence. All the great ones in college and the NBA enjoy joking with the reporters who cover them, and Oats is there with them. During his post-game interview, Oats said something about appreciating this one season of his best player, Brandon Miller, and so after the formal stuff was over one of the reporters tossed up a lob pass for Oats to alley-oop.

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So you’re not expecting Brandon Miller to be back for his sophomore season?

Might have a little trouble putting together an NIL package that big, Oats cracked.

Miller is looking more and more like a lottery pick every game, which means there’s little to no chance he’d even entertain a second season of college ball. All that said, I’m not going to object if Alabama passes around the hat to keep Miller in college for one more season.

What, you think Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe stayed in college for nothing? Tshiebwe was the Naismith National Player of the Year last season. He could have gone pro. He didn’t stay in school for another year of John Calipari’s sarcasm, OK?

Tshiebwe is pretty good. He played 40 minutes against LSU on Tuesday night and had 16 points and 19 rebounds in the Wildcats’ 74-71 victory against LSU. Alabama’s Miller is projected to be a better pro.

I’ve only covered one player in my career who returned to school for an extra season when he knew he could go pro and be a lottery pick. That was former Florida Gators All-American Joakim Noah. Noah had internationally famous parents, so money didn’t matter. He just wanted to have one more season of fun with teammates Al Horford and Corey Brewer.

It worked out for those guys, too. They won back-to-back NCAA Tournaments.

In a couple more seasons, I could see Oats turning Alabama basketball into something like what coach Billy Donovan had at Florida. With Miller, Alabama has the firepower to go deep in the tournament this March. On an off night by his standards, Miller led Alabama in scoring with 17 points, five rebounds and two assists.

Alabama is 12-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC. Tough games are coming against Kentucky (at home on Saturday), Arkansas (away, Jan.11) and LSU (home, Jan.14).

“If you’re planning on competing for SEC championships you got to win your home games,” Oats said.

He would know. Alabama won the SEC regular season and tournament titles in Oats’ second season. This team might end up being better.

Football coaches at Alabama are expected to pull in the best recruiting classes year after year. Basketball coaches? That’s a tougher sell, but Oats is attracting some of the best players in the country. Once on campus, he’s getting them to play defense together. That’s the key.

Alabama is a deep team, and it’s getting better with every game. Guard Jaden Bradley said defense has been the focus since the summer. Last season, consistent offense was a struggle for the Crimson Tide. Points come from everywhere on this new roster. Miller started slow against Ole Miss, but Alabama still led by 21 at halftime. Nine players scored in the first half, but no one had double digits.

That’s a fun party trick.

“This year we’ve got 10 guys strong,” Oats said. “We’ve got options at every position from point guard to center.”

Ole Miss felt like a warm-up for the tests ahead. The Rebels shot 34.8 percent from the field and was 2 of 24 from three-point range. Alabama’s defenders came in waves. That’s the only way teams will be able to stack up victories in this SEC. The league is tough. Kentucky isn’t even ranked, but just snapped LSU’s seven-game winning streak. Tennessee smashed Mississippi State 87-53 on Tuesday, and Mississippi State gave Alabama fits.

Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said the SEC is going to be a rock fight this season, and the Tigers bring their slingshots to Georgia on Wednesday night. The game of the night in the SEC is elsewhere, though. No one wins at Arkansas, but resurgent Missouri will try. Arkansas is at Auburn on Saturday.

Looking for a New Year’s sports resolution? Let it be watching Alabama’s Miller as often as possible. It’s something spectacular every game with him. This time, on an otherwise relatively quiet night for Alabama’s masterful 6-9 freshman, Miller waited until the NBA scouts left before rising up and drilling a preposterous turnaround jumper from 33-feet.

Or, as national award-winning Alabama beat writer Michael Casagrande put it, “from Fairhope” on the map of Alabama that serves as the Crimson Tide’s mid-court graphic.

“He had to pull from the logo,” Oats said. “We had no time left on the shot clock.”

If players get in trouble on offense, Oats tells them to find Miller at the top of the key. Money Miller the fixer. He’s the wolf of Coleman Coliseum.

“Some of them just fall sometimes,” Miller said.

I arrived at Coleman about two hours before tipoff this time. Everyone plays well on the weekend. It’s those mid-week games when the true character of a team either shows up or doesn’t. Guess who was on the court before anyone? It was Miller, the future lottery pick. His pregame shooting routine is more like a practice session. For fans, it’s like a free exhibition.

Afterwards, I asked Miller how many shots he gets up before games.

“Between 200 and 400,” he said.

The wolf doesn’t track his shots, but it only takes two paws to count the remaining home games of his college career. It’s eight.

Joseph Goodman is a columnist for the Alabama Media Group, and author of “We Want Bama: A season of hope and the making of Nick Saban’s ‘ultimate team’”. You can find him on Twitter @JoeGoodmanJr.