TUSCALOOSA — Nate Oats had to snap back into teacher mode for a brief moment during No. 2 Alabama’s 94-85 loss to No. 1 Auburn on Saturday. The Alabama coach, who started his career as a math teacher and basketball at Romulus High School in Michigan jumped on the Coleman Coliseum PA system during a stoppage to warn fans in or near the Alabama student section after objects were thrown on the court.

Oats told whoever was throwing objects to “knock it off.” Oats' announcement came with just over 9:30 remaining after Alabama cut Auburn's lead to 3.

After the game, Oats said he didn’t see the incident but was told if another object was thrown onto the court Alabama would receive a technical foul.

“The administration told me somebody threw something on the floor,” Oats said. “If they did it again we were gonna get a T in a game that was gonna be tight. Not sure what the score was at that point, but we weren’t trying to give away free points.

“So, if that was one of our fans, I’m disappointed. It doesn’t help us win. I’m not sure what they’d be throwing something on the floor for anyway. It’s just asinine. So, don’t do dumb stuff. We tell the players not to do dumb stuff and get flagrant and give the other team free points. We’re trying to win the basketball game on the scoreboard. We’re trying not to get our players to do dumb things and give away free points. Let’s try to get the fans to not do dumb things to give away free points.”

Oats said he’s never had to take the mic before at a college game but referenced his 11 years as a high school coach where he’s witnessed brawls in the stands. No more incidents of objects being thrown occurred after Oats put on his teacher cap.

“It just takes one person to throw something. Had our attendance at 13,500 people here. So 13,499 were hopefully really well-behaved. It takes one person to ruin it for everybody. So let’s make sure we don’t have that happen again.”

Neither Oats nor Auburn coach Bruce Pearl ran into issues with the official that resulted in technicals in Saturday’s edition of the heated in-state rivalry. The only player called for a flagrant during was Auburn forward Chad Baker-Mazara, who was issued a flagrant on his fifth foul of the game with 2:22 remaining.

Alabama will look to rebound from a loss to its archrival when it faces No. 21 Missouri on Wednesday. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT inside Mizzou Arena. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network.