Nate Oats provides his takeaways from late-season slide, SEC Tournament

Head coach Nate Oats has had Alabama toward the top of the SEC all season long. However, the Crimson Tide have been sliding lately, dropping three of their final five games of the regular season before getting bumped by Florida in the SEC Tournament.

Following the loss to Florida, Oats shared some of his takeaways from that late-season slide and explained why it matters to turn things around quickly for Alabama.

“That’s a good question,” Nate Oats said. “I thought we had a good, positive attitude coming into this tournament, you know? I didn’t think we played particularly well against Arkansas. That would have been our third loss in a row but we came back and got the win. We’ve lost three out of the last four.”

One of the biggest issues for Alabama late this season has been the team’s health. In particular, the Crimson Tide were missing key players like Latrell Wrightsell and Rylan Griffen.

“We haven’t been healthy. You know, we just got Wrightsell back. Just got Griffen back from the previous Florida game. So, I felt like we finally got our group together and we got a little healthier.”

Both Wrightsell and Griffen were able to return for the SEC Tournament. However, neither played up to their standard. Part of that could be rust and a lack of practice while dealing with their respective injuries. However, combining for just 13 points didn’t help Alabama’s effort against Florida enough.

“I mean, it’s hard to change at any point during the year, but if we don’t change we’re not gonna be playing too many more games at this point. So, they’re going to have to decide how much more basketball they want to play together. This’ll be the last time this group gets to play,” Oats said.

“I felt bad for Aaron [Estrada]. I thought he played pretty hard most of the day and next time we lose, he’s done. His career’s over. He’s been a great teammate, he’s helped the program a lot. I would hope these guys want to try to play a little harder for him, at least.”

Aaron Estrada is one of the graduate students on Alabama’s roster who is about to exhaust his eligibility. He had 17 points, three rebounds, and six assists in the loss to Florida. It was a good effort but not enough and now another loss would end his college career.

Alabama is going to the NCAA Tournament. However, what their seed is going to be and who they’ll play is still up in the air. Regardless, Nate Oats is looking for answers going into the Big Dance.