Alabama basketball looks to regroup after falling out of SEC lead

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Alabama had a chance to break a tie with Tennessee for the top spot in the SEC standings on Saturday night at Coleman Coliseum. But the No. 14 Crimson Tide lost to the fourth-ranked Vols, 81-74, to drop to second with two regular-season games left.

“It’s out of our hands now,” head coach Nate Oats said after the loss. “We’ve still got a shot at it, but we’re gonna need to get some help to earn a share of it at this point. Real disappointing.”

Alabama (20-9, 12-4 SEC) has now lost three straight to Tennessee (23-6, 13-3), including both games this season. The Tide played better in Round 2, at least in the areas of emphasis Oats highlighted before the top-15 matchup – improved defense and limiting turnovers.

In the first meeting on Jan. 20, Alabama turned it over a season-high 22 times. On Saturday in Tuscaloosa, it only had 12 turnovers, which led to 17 points for the Vols. The Crimson Tide also played well on the defensive end of the floor, especially against Tennessee star Dalton Knecht, who had 13 points on 5-of-14 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 from three.

The problem for Alabama was, surprisingly, its offense. The Tide had scored 80 points in nine straight games, which was tied for the second-longest SEC streak in the last 30 seasons, and 90 points in its last five conference contests – the longest stretch in program history.

After a Sam Walters layup with 14:37 left in the game – followed by three free throws from the freshman – Alabama held a 58-51 lead, but the Tide was out-scored 30-16 from that point and only made three field goals in its final 21 shots from the floor in the home loss.

“We’ve gotta make better decisions down the stretch,” Oats said. “I thought they were the quicker team to a lot of loose balls throughout the night. If you’re gonna win a championship, there’s championship-level plays that have to be made that we didn’t make. And when you get a 7-point lead against a good team, you can’t take possessions for granted.”

UA was once again without starting guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr., who missed his fourth straight game with a head injury. Wrightsell warmed up before the game, which was the first time that’s happened since the injury occurred last Monday, and Oats was optimistic about his availability for Tuesday while stating the obvious after a 9-for-37 effort from three.

“We certainly could have used him tonight,” Oats said.

The Tide once again had to lean on some of its younger players against a veteran UT unit.

“We’re playing a lot of freshmen and sophomores,” Oats said. “They need to grow up in a hurry if we’re gonna try to have a shot to win these last two and try to make a run at the SEC Tournament. We need those guys to grow up and play a little more like juniors and seniors than freshmen and sophomores.”

Alabama will next travel to Gainesville to take on the No. 24 Florida Gators, which took the Tide to overtime on its home court last week. UA still has a slim chance at its third regular-season conference title in four years, which was the message in the postgame locker room.

“The season’s not over,” senior guard Mark Sears said. “We still have something to play for, and we’re just gonna come in tomorrow, learn from what we did, the mistakes, and we’ll get better from this.”

But in front of the best home environment of the year, the Tide squandered an opportunity to take full control of its regular-season championship path. Now, it is tied with South Carolina for second place behind Tennessee, with Auburn and Kentucky just a game behind. Alabama will look to hold onto a top-4 seed in the SEC Tournament to close out the season.

“We’ll see how mature our guys are because we talk to them all the time – control the things you can control,” Oats said. “What we can control now is our effort on Tuesday, our effort on Saturday. And if we’re looking for help and not getting it and that affects our effort, then we’re not as mature as we need to be. We’ve gotta take care of our business. 

“If we get some help, great. If we don’t, we could still get a 2-seed. … At this point, we’re playing for seeding, and if we get some help, great. If we don’t get any help, we didn’t deserve to win it. We needed to win this one to have full control over our destiny to whether we win the regular season or not.”

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