KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Coaching mistakes negated what could have otherwise been viewed as a season-defining performance for No. 6 Alabama against No. 5 Tennessee. Instead of a win marked by strong defense and blue-collar effort against the No. 1 defense in the country on its home floor, it was the Volunteers celebrating a 79-76 victory.
The Tide’s work for the first 39-plus minutes wasn’t enough. And that’s on Nate Oats.
“I was not good for the last 30 seconds today,” Oats said after the game. “I feel like I failed these guys.”
The Alabama coach took the blame for errors that saw Tennessee erase a four-point Tide lead with 36 seconds left and steal the game on a Jahmai Mashack buzzer-beater 3.
The first error came after the Volunteers got an and-1 layup to cut Alabama’s deficit to two points. Oats subbed out Tide forwards Clifford Omoruyi and Mouhame Dioubate with the hope of pushing the ball up the floor on Alabama’s next possession.
Tennessee missed the free throw, but Alabama committed a foul trying to secure a rebound with a smaller unit in. Mashack made the two from the line to tie the game.
“I should have left the guys in to make sure we secured it before we went to the offensive end,” Oats said. “We foul in the rebound at the free-throw line, and they make 2-for-2. You’ve got to give them credit. We’ve got to do a better job making our free throws.”
Alabama still had the chance to secure a road win on the next possession. With the game tied, Oats called timeout to draw up a baseline out-of-bounds play.
That's when one of the Tide’s lingering issues with those sets reared its ugly head. And Oats didn’t step in to give his team the chance to fix it when he could have.
Despite having two timeouts to play with, Oats watched as Labaron Philon looked for an option from the baseline near Alabama’s bench. He didn’t find one, and Alabama was hit with a five-second call.
“I should have called timeout,” Oats said. “Coaches can call timeout on the underneath out-of-bounds play. At four, I should have called it. I thought we were getting it in. That’s on me.”
Baseline out-of-bounds plays have been an issue for Alabama against SEC opponents. Oats acknowledged that he has to be better for his players in both end-of-game situations and setting them up for success when they inbound the ball.
“We probably need to get our out-of-bounds package earlier in the week instead of giving it to them the day before,” Oats said. “We focus on some other stuff —and [Tennessee’s] good. They’re physical. They make it hard to get it in. That’s terrible to have the amount of turnovers on the underneath-out-of-bounds. We had the one where we tried to get it to Mo D. So, some of that is on me too, to be honest with you. I gotta do a better job for these guys.”
Tennessee was then able to set up for a final shot with 3.8 seconds remaining. Alabama dropped back on defense, and Mashack raced up the floor and took an open 3 to sink Alabama inside Thompson Boiling Arena. Oats also took ownership of that sequence and said Alabama could have gone with smaller personnel to prevent Tennessee from moving the ball up the floor quickly. The Tide subbed out Mark Sears and Chris Youngblood for Dioubate and Omoruyi before the final shot.
The coaching errors culminated in a heartbreaking loss that could put Alabama’s hopes at a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament in jeopardy if it doesn’t find a response. Oats took responsibility for the end-of-game sequence. But he also said it’s his job to make sure Tennessee’s 7-0 finish doesn’t snowball into bad performances against two more top-five teams in No. 3 Florida and No. 1 Auburn.
“Moving forward, we really got to lock in on end-of-half, end-of-game, special situations. I gotta be much better for this team on that. I think we just pump up how we played during the course of the game and some controllables like the end-of-game situation stuff that we didn’t do a very good job with.”
Oats will have to learn from his end-of-game errors quickly. Alabama will look to build on the positives taken from 39-and-a-half minutes against Tennessee in its matchup against the Gators. Alabama and Florida will face off at 6 p.m. CT Wednesday night inside Coleman Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on ESPN 2.
