Alabama using Tennessee loss to 'make us a better team' for postseason

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Nate Oats shouldered the blame for Alabama’s late-game collapse at Tennessee on Saturday. The Crimson Tide led by four points with 30 seconds on the clock and walked out of Thompson-Boling Arena with a 79-76 loss to the No. 5 Volunteers.

A dejected Oats said he “failed” his players with some of his decisions in the final seconds of Saturday’s road loss in Knoxville, citing substitutions he shouldn’t have made and not calling a timeout before Alabama guard Labaron Philon was called for a 5-second violation.

He shared a similar message to his team after the game and in the days that followed, which was uplifting to players like Chris Youngblood, who is playing in his final home game.

“When you hear your head coach say that, it’s soothing because he holds us to a high standard, and him saying that lets us know he holds himself to a high standard,” Youngblood said. “He’s practicing what he preaches. That’s always a good feeling.”

Alabama (23-6, 12-4 SEC) will look to bounce back against another top-five opponent with No. 5 Florida visiting Coleman Coliseum on Wednesday, March 5 (6 p.m. CT on ESPN2). But the Tide must also try to right what went wrong before Jahmai Maschack’s buzzer-beater.

“As the head coach, I’ve gotta do a better job getting us to the finish line,” Oats said. “We went through our end-of-half, end-of-game scenarios. Pointed out where we’ve gotta do better, where I’ve gotta make better decisions, where I could have done better, where they gotta execute a few things better. If we come up with similar scenarios, we’ll have a better plan. 

“The players will understand what we’re trying to do better. I’ll be better for them as a head coach. … We’re gonna own what we should have done better, starting with me. We’re gonna fix it. We’re gonna use it as an opportunity to make us a better team moving forward for the SEC Tournament, for the NCAA Tournament. 

“We will be the most prepared team for end-of-game situations moving forward, and we’ll use that to spur us on to be a better team for our run in March.”

Oats liked what he saw at Alabama’s practices in the wake of the Tennessee loss.

“I thought we had a really good practice Monday. I thought we had a really good practice today,” Oats said. “I think our seniors that we’re gonna honor tomorrow have done a really good job leading, making sure the guys are gonna be ready go. And I think you’ll see a team ready to go on Wednesday.”

Alabama can clinch a double-bye in next week’s SEC Tournament with a victory over Florida on Wednesday night. Currently projected to be a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the Crimson Tide can also climb back up to the No. 1 line depending on how the rest of the regular season goes. Regardless of seeing, Oats wants Alabama to be hitting its stride.

For 39 and a half minutes in Knoxville, that appeared to be the case. If the Tide can clean up its late-game issues, last weekend’s game could prove beneficial for UA in the postseason.

“We need to be playing our best basketball come March, that’s really the goal,” Oats said. “So let’s get to the point where we are playing currently the best basketball we’ve played all year, and I think we’re close, honestly. If we had closed that Tennessee game, that would have been one of our best games on both sides of the ball. We were 30 seconds from closing it. 

“If those 30 seconds spur the coaching staff, the players on being a much better situational basketball team end of game, end of half … and that spurs us on to win some games in the NCAA Tournament, it may have been the best thing to happen to us.”

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