TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Nate Oats had a clear message after No. 5 Alabama’s 74-64 loss to No. 22 Ole Miss. The Crimson Tide’s lowest-scoring and highest-turnover game of the season started with seven turnovers on its first 10 possessions, setting the tone for what was to come.
The Tide came out sleepwalking and didn’t wake up resulting in its first defeat in conference play. Oats had a blunt assessment of the performance.
“It’s disgusting, to be honest with you,” Oats said after the game. “With the amount of fifth-year seniors and the leadership that should be showing on this team — to have guys not come ready to play — it starts with me because I’m supposed to be the one motivating these guys and I obviously didn’t motivate them very well to make sure they’re ready.”
Alabama committed errors all game to dig itself a grave against a respectable, but still inferior Ole Miss team on paper. The Tide barely held an edge on the glass despite the tallest Ole Miss player who got minutes Tuesday standing just 6-foot-9. Alabama grabbed just four offensive rebounds and took 23 fewer shots than the Rebels on its home floor.
Ironically, Alabama was also outdone on the Tide’s own metric of blue-collar points, which chart hustle plays. Alabama was bested 89.5 to 72.5 in a game that was dubbed “Blue-Collar Night” by the team.
“They almost had 20 more than us,” Oats said. “I told our guys in the locker room after the game, we have to deserve to win it. We didn’t deserve to win the game. Ole Miss came in and they deserved to win the game. You have to deserve it with your preparation going into the game and then you have to deserve it with your effort once you’re in the game. The team that deserved to win the game tonight won the game tonight.”
Despite the Tide’s disappointing output in nearly every area on the floor, it was still in the game with a minute to go. It lost by just 10 points to an Ole Miss side that has earned respect for some quality performances so far. For Oats, the true disappointment in Alabama’s first SEC defeat is that it came down to self-inflicted wounds as a result of not being prepared to defend home court.
Alabama doesn’t have the lack of veteran leadership as an excuse, either. The team has five fifth-year seniors amongst a crop of talented younger players who have cut their teeth at the college level and none of those players stepped up to the plate Tuesday. Mark Sears had just 11 points on 3 of 8 shooting. Grant Nelson led Alabama in turnovers with five while Clifford Omoruyi, along with the rest of the frontcourt was dominated by Ole Miss forward Malik Dia, who finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds.
Oats assessed that he failed to motivate the group. He plans to look internally and have some tough conversations to make sure Tuesday’s performance doesn’t happen again.
“I’m gonna have to make sure they’re ready,” Oats said. “So I’m gonna have to look in the mirror, see what I need to do. We’re gonna have to have a good talk with some of these seniors that are supposed to be our leaders and figure out why we weren’t ready to go tonight because it’s very disappointing, it’s disgusting, it’s frustrating.”
With Alabama reeling one of its worst performances of the season, Oats doesn’t have much time to rally the troops before an even tougher test against No. 8 Kentucky on Saturday. Those planned conversations will have to make a strong impact in a hurry to avoid Tuesday night’s performance from snowballing into something worse given how strong the SEC is this season.
The lack of talent on Alabama is undeniable. But to Oats, Tuesday’s performance is what happens when effort doesn’t match that talent.
“We didn’t lose because they were just a far superior team tonight,” Oats said. “I thought we lost because they came ready to play. They brought energy. They brought effort and we did not. That’s a frustrating way to lose.”
