TUSCALOOSA⁠—Alabama’s chances of making the NCAA Tournament were slim before Tuesday night. The Crimson Tide probably needed to string together five consecutive wins, something the team hasn’t done all season.

Instead, Alabama lost 87-79 to a Vanderbilt squad (10-20, 2-15 Southeastern conference) that now has only two SEC victories in the last two years.

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The loss removes almost all of the guesswork from the NCAA Tournament equation now for the Crimson Tide (16-14, 8-9 SEC). Alabama basketball coach Nate Oats acknowledged as much within seconds of addressing the media following the loss.

“That buries our (NCAA) tournament chances, which we pretty kind of knew,” Oats said. “Barring us winning the SEC Tournament we’re probably not going to be playing in it.”

Had the game gone another way, this would one would go down in the books as the night graduate transfer James “Beetle” Bolden saved the season with an all-time encore performance in front of the home crowd.

Coming into the game, Bolden averaged 8.1 points and 21.6 minutes per game. Against Vanderbilt, the senior scored a season-high 24 points while draining a career-high seven 3-pointers (on 12 attempts) in a season-high 38 minutes of action.

“For these games, you gotta come and bring your max effort,” Bolden said. “That’s all I was thinking to be honest. Just going out there and giving it my all. Leaving it out there on the floor.”

Bolden spent most of his time in the postgame press conference talking about the lack of effort Alabama played with instead of what it felt like to shine so bright in what is likely his final home game at Alabama.

While Bolden spent much of the night playing the role of the hero alongside teammates Kira Lewis Jr. (30 points) and Jaden Shackelford (18), the villain role fell to Vanderbilt junior Saben Lee.

When Alabama defeated Vanderbilt 77-62 on Jan. 22, Lee missed 13 of 17 shots, including both of his 3-pointers.

That wasn’t the case on Tuesday when he knocked down six of seven shots taken beyond the arc to finish with a career-high 38 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Lee scored 15 of his points in the final five minutes of the game as Vanderbilt stole the lead back from Alabama for the remainder of the game.

“Effort and all that stuff falls on the head coach," Oats said. "I gotta change the culture here and we’re working on it and it’s obviously not changed enough. So I’m as disappointed as the fans are. I know they’re super disappointed. I’m not gonna sleep all night.”

This was Alabama’s first Quad 4 loss this season. The Crimson Tide was 4-0 before Tuesday night, although Vanderbilt might rise in the NET ranks just enough after the win to make this a Quad 3 game when all is said and done.

Not that Quad wins or losses matter much for this team. As Oats eluded to, Alabama is no longer in a position to play the beauty pageant game with the selection committee.

Alabama’s entire bench, including redshirt freshman Javian Davis was noticeably absent from this one. The three players combined to score three points, grab five rebounds while turning the ball over four times in 40 total minutes.

Davis’ lack of production was especially noticeable after he played the best game of his career on Saturday. Oats said he opted to start Bolden instead of Davis Tuesday in part because it was senior night, but also because Vanderbilt likes to run a smaller lineup.

Had John Petty Jr. been available for Alabama, that approach might have worked, but the Crimson Tide simply didn’t have enough depth to keep up.

“He’s not strong enough to get out there, take a fall, and protect himself,” Oats said. “So it wouldn’t have been wise, it wouldn’t have been best for him and his future to try to put him out there today…

“I would say decent shot he plays at Missouri. If he doesn’t play there, pretty sure he’ll be playing in the SEC Tournament.”

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