Nate Oats criticizes players, sends warning following loss to Mississippi State

Alabama basketball has been one of the most inconsistent teams in the country this season, and head coach Nate Oats knows that.

The Crimson Tide are coming off a heart-breaking 78-76 loss against Mississippi State on the road on Saturday. The loss against the Bulldogs marks their third in a row and have since dropped out of the AP Top 25 rankings.

“I thought our bigs actually did a decent job,” Oats said. “It was really our guards that hurt us. They didn’t check out. They didn’t go get balls they needed to get. They end up killing us.”

To his point, Alabama’s seven-foot freshman Charles Bediako notched 11 points and six rebounds in the loss to Mississippi State. Sophomore Darius Miles also dropped a season-high 14 points off the bench to go with six boards in just 19 minutes of play as well.

“Offense hasn’t really been our problem,” he said. “It’s been more defense, rebounding, toughness. … If somebody doesn’t want to rebound, doesn’t want to guard, doesn’t want to play hard enough, you just don’t play them.”

If his key players don’t perform to his expectations, he has somewhere for them to go:

“The bench is a great teaching tool at this level,” Oats said. “Guys don’t want to play hard and do what we ask them to do, make some tough plays, they can come sit next to us on the bench.”

It seems as though Oats is addressing the poor performance of junior guard Jahvon Quinerly. He played just 23 minutes (Quinerly averages 31 per game) scoring a season-low five points, four turnovers and three fouls against the Bulldogs.

Two of Oats’ best players, Jaden Shackelford and Keon Ellis, combined for 31 points on a combined 9-26 shooting. To add to their head coach’s point about offensive inefficiency, Shackelford went 1-9 from deep, which didn’t help his team when you look at the final score.

Alabama has a shot to get back on track after their poor start to SEC play against No. 13 LSU this Wednesday in Tuscaloosa. They get a two-game skid afterward against Missouri and Georgia right after before hosting No. 5 Baylor in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Jan. 29 to round out their January slate.