How Alabama veterans responded to Ole Miss loss ahead of matchup with Kentucky: 'They owned it'
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama played an uncharacteristic game on multiple fronts in Tuesday night’s home loss to No. 21 Ole Miss.
In addition to a poor offensive game that saw the Tide’s lowest scoring total in nearly two full seasons, there was a distinct lack of effort that head coach Nate Oats called “disgusting” after the game. Alabama had a season-high 21 turnovers in the game, many of them unforced and careless, and even more notably only grabbed four offensive rebounds after coming into the game as one of the top offensive rebounding teams in the nation.
The game was marketed as “blue-collar night,” and Ole Miss beat Alabama by nearly 20 in blue-collar points tracked by the Alabama staff.
“We didn’t have an intensity and a focus that a game in the SEC demands, and that’s on me to make sure that it happens,” Oats said. “I told them, like, on my end, I’ll make dang sure that if I’ve got anything to do with it, it’s not gonna happen again”
After the game, Oats mentioned wanting to have conversations with Alabama’s seniors regarding their leadership. The Crimson Tide is a veteran-laden team, with four active 5th-year college basketball players, all of whom Oats expected better from in that game.
In the days following the loss leading up to tomorrow’s game against No. 8 Kentucky, Oats said those talks with his veterans were productive.
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“I think they owned it. They didn’t have the team ready to go. They know that they can’t do it again,” Oats said. “They’re great kids. They’re all, with the exception of Youngblood, all a little quiet, reserved. Not necessarily in their play, you see Grant and Cliff make a bunch of tough plays and Sears is super physical, but the three of those guys are all a little more quiet and reserved. We can’t have that, they need to speak up, make sure their presence is felt.
“They need to make sure they themselves are ready to go and then make sure the team is ready to go as the leaders on this team. I think they know it, I think they owned it, I think we’ll see a different team on Saturday.”
Ideally for Oats, the Ole Miss loss will serve as a warning that in this year’s stacked SEC, there’s no room to take a night off against any team.
“I think it did give us a wake-up call. I think we maybe overlooked Ole Miss a little bit,” Oats said. “I just told them, if you overlook anybody in this league, you’re gonna take an L.”
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