The 3-pointer: Three takeaways from Alabama's loss to Gonzaga

BIRMINGHAM — Alabama's four-game winning streak is over.

In the rematch between the No. 4 Crimson Tide and No. 15 Gonzaga, the Bulldogs showed why it went to the Sweet 16 last season cruising to a 100-90 victory in a pseudo-home game for Alabama.

Here are three takeaways from Alabama's loss to Gonzaga.

Alabama head coach Nate Oats highlighted the importance of limiting turnovers during his media availability on Thursday. While he harped on it with the media and made remarks that the team had to protect the ball better, Saturday's execution of that plan was anything but crisp.

The Crimson Tide turned it over on two of its first four possessions but settled into the offense outscoring Gonzaga 15-8 over the next four minutes of play. Coincidentally, Alabama didn't commit one turnover in that span, but turnovers ensued when it forced the issue offensively. The Crimson Tide recorded 14 turnovers in the first half alone making it 11 consecutive games where Alabama has turned the ball over 10 times or more.

Alabama turned it over just seven times in the second half but finished the game with 21 turnovers. Saturday's matchup marked the fourth game this season where the team turned it over 20 times or more.

"They were really good and were good enough on defense to today to turn us over 21 times," Alabama head coach Nate Oats said. "Gonzaga is one of the best programs in the country for a long time now. They've got really good players and I thought our guys battled with them for a lot of the game."

On Saturday, Drew Timme showed why he was a Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Center of the Year finalist and is the reigning WCC Player of the Year.

The senior outdid his performance in Spokane last season scoring a team-high 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting. Oats said that it was not an accident that Timme averaged more than 20 points per game coming into Saturday. Timme's consistency allowed the Bulldogs to be highly selective in their shot selection, shooting better than 70% in the second half.

"It's tough to come up with a good plan for (Timme)," Oats said. "Timme was great and we struggled with him. We weren't planning on the guards getting off and Timme both at the same time. We need to do a better job of having different options to guard him."

The center's performance was his eighth game where he scored 20 points or more and is the fourth in a row during the month of December. His proficiency in the low post and in the paint caught the eye of Alabama freshman Brandon Miller.

"Man Drew Timme probably has the best footwork in the country," Miller said. "I've never seen anything like it. He's pretty tough to guard and he gave us trouble early and then gave us trouble late in the game."

One of the major cruxes in the Crimson Tide's culture became its Achilles Heel on Saturday.

Alabama's defense was non-existent in the second half as Gonzaga shot better than 41% from behind the 3-point line one of its best shooting performances from deep this season. As a result, Gonzaga had six players score in double figures compared to just two for Alabama in Jaden Bradley and Miller.

"Our defense was really struggling," Oats said. "But we were able to get some buckets during the second half (from Miller) that at least kept us in the game to see if we could figure it out on defense. We never quite figured it out on defense."

Miller not only had a huge night scoring-wise but was extremely efficient from deep going 6-for-9 from behind the arc en route to a career-high 36 points in the loss.

While Oats said it was "nice to have a guy that could score the basketball at a pretty high clip," he noted that Gonzaga played harder in the second half which led to the team's poor defensive effort.

"We've got to get back to where we are playing harder," Oats said. "We chart the 'blue-collar points' and we Gonzaga with 11 more than we had. I mean they were taking charges, they were doubling us up on loose ball plays and had more deflections than we had. They played hard and we didn't. If we want to make sure that we don't keep losing we have to play a little harder.