No. 2 Alabama basketball’s struggles down the stretch finally caught up with it Saturday as it stumbled to a 67-61 loss at No. 24 Texas A&M.

The Crimson Tide shot 34% from the floor, making just 7 of 36 shots from beyond the arc. It also turned the ball over 18 times and allowed the Aggies to live at the foul line where they hit 27 of 28 free-throw attempts.

Alabama has struggled at times in each of its last four games, pulling out overtime wins against South Carolina (78-76) and Auburn (90-85) as well as a narrow 86-83 victory over Arkansas before losing to Texas A&M on Saturday. Despite the tough stretch, Alabama (26-5, 16-2 in the SEC) still secured the SEC regular-season title and will enter next week’s conference tournament as the No. 1 seed.

Alabama earned a double bye in the SEC Tournament and will have six days before taking the court inside Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena on Friday. After Saturday’s loss, Alabama head coach Nate Oats said he plans to give his team Sunday off before returning to practice on Monday.

“We got to get our guys legs back under them so we can make some shots,” Alabama head coach Nate Oats said following Saturday’s game. “Get back in the gym, work on some individual skill stuff, particularly shooting. When you’re playing two games a week since the first week of January, there’s not a lot of time to work on some individual skill stuff.”

Here are three things Alabama will need to improve on if it wants to cut down the nets in Nashville next week.

Alabama was dismal from beyond the arc against Texas A&M, making just one of its first nine attempts from deep. That’s been an unsettling trend for the Crimson Tide as it is now 25 of 116 from 3 over its last four games.

“The way we play, it certainly helps to make shots,” Oats said. “I didn’t realize it was that [bad]... It’s not shocking. I knew whe haven’t shot it well. We’ve got a week, six days, before we play again. We’ll get back in the gym and try to get it fixed.”

After shooting 6 of 13 from beyond the arc during his 41-point game against South Carolina, Brandon Miller has been unusually cold from long range. The freshman forward made just two of his 12 attempts from deep against Texas A&M and is just 4 of 24 from beyond the arc over his last three games. Despite his recent struggles, Miller still leads the team making 40.3% of his 3-point attempts this season.

Rylan Griffen has also been off the mark, missing his last 11 shots from beyond the arc over the past four games. He was 0-for-6 from 3-point range against Texas A&M. Griffen is still shooting 32.1% from deep on the season and put together a five-game stretch from Jan. 28 to Feb. 11 in which he sunk 13 of 24 shots from deep.

Alabama’s Achilles' heel has been its carelessness with the basketball as it has averaged 18.4 turnovers in its five losses this season. Saturday, the Crimson Tide was right at that mark, allowing the Aggies to score 13 points on their 18 giveaways.

“I thought we played passive because we turned it over,” Oats said. “Their press slowed the game down. It’s not how we wanted to play. Then when you turn it over, you start to play even more passive which is kind of a snowball effect.”

Alabama had 14 turnovers in its overtime win over Auburn after giving the ball away 17 times against Arkansas last week. Miller has contributed heavily to that problem recently, turning the ball over a combined 14 times over those three games.

A mixture of poor shooting and loose ball handling has seen Alabama dig itself into early deficits in each of its last four games. The Crimson Tide fought back from down 17 points against Auburn and erased a 15-point Texas A&M advantage before failing to pull off the comeback. Alabama also trailed Arkansas by 11 points in the first half and struggled early at South Carolina.

“The coaching staff has got to do a better job of getting our guys ready to play out of the gate,” Oats said. “Sometimes they settle in and start to play better throughout the game. We’ve got to get them prepared.”

Alabama scored 3 points before the first media break on Saturday after mustering up just 2 points before that point in the game earlier in the week against Auburn.

“We’ve got to do a better job prepping them with how to attack,” Oats said, “What they’re going to do defensively to start the game.”